url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyA_GEjU8Ws

Carter, Allison; Rich, Ashleigh; Lachowsky, Nathan; Forrest, Jamie; Sereda, Paul; Cui, Zishan; Chan, Keith; Roth, Eric; Moore, David; Kaida, Angela; Montaner, Julio S.G.; and Hogg, Robert S. (2014, October). Advancing Gay Men’s Health Literacy: Awareness and Knowledge of Treatment as Prevention (TasP) among HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in British Columbia, Canada. Presented at the Gay Men's Health Summit, Vancouver, Canada. Our objectives were to assess the association between TasP awareness and demographic, behavioural, and clinical factors among HIV-positive and HIV-negative men and to qualitatively explore men’s knowledge of TasP. We used self-administrated baseline questionnaire data from 717 gay and bisexual men (and clinical screening data for HIV-positive participants) enrolled via Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) in the Momentum Health Study. Stratified by HIV status, multivariable logistic regression identified covariates of TasP awareness (ever heard versus never heard). For those who heard of TasP, participants were asked to define TasP in their own words and report information source. Complete TasP knowledge demonstrated three factors: ARV use, viralogical suppression, and prevention of HIV transmission. All analyses are RDS-adjusted. Of 717 participants, 27% were HIV-positive, 69% were Caucasian, and median age was 33 [IQR 26,47]. TasP awareness was higher among HIV-positive men (73%) compared with HIV-negative men (43%; p＜0.001). In the multivariable models, HIV-positive men were more likely to have heard of TasP if they were born in Canada, not employed, not using party drugs, not adherent to ARVs, and had higher CD4 counts, while HIV-negative men were more likely to have heard of TasP if they had more formal education, a regular partner, ＞6 sexual partners, and were not in the sex industry. Participants who heard of TasP (n=366) learnt about it from gay media (34%), community agencies (31%), friends (26%), doctors (25%), and sex partners (14%). Only 21% of these men provided complete definitions of TasP (all three factors). The factor identified most was 'ARV use' (16%) and omitted most was 'viral load suppression’ (9%). While TasP awareness was high and gained from various sources, men’s articulation of their knowledge of TasP was relatively poor. New strategies to advance gay men’s health literacy regarding TasP are a critical component of HIV prevention.

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