# PrEP Uptake among Justice Involved Peripregnancy Women Who Use Drugs

> **NIH NIH P30** · UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI CORAL GABLES · 2022 · $293,642

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
This is a proposal to identify an intervention strategy and develop an implementation strategy to increase pre-
exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and HIV prevention services for peripregnancy criminally-justice (CJ)-involved
women who use drugs (WWUD) in the Greater Miami area. Peripregnancy CJ-involved WWUD constitute a
population of particular importance to ending the HIV epidemic (EHE) because so many CJ-involved women
are structurally marginalized, live in poverty, and are often forced to move between low-wage care/service
work and sex work for economic survival, placing them at high risk for HIV. Additionally, women’s pathway to
incarceration is characterized by criminalizing behaviors associated with gender-based violence, including drug
use and sex work, and therefore infectious disease risk. Nearly 4% of CJ-involved women are estimated to be
pregnant, and nearly 15% of all pregnant women in the U.S. meet criteria for substance use disorder, with
WWUD during pregnancy facing heightened HIV vulnerability. Accordingly, women have become the fastest-
growing segment of the incarcerated population, with rates climbing at double that of men. PrEP for HIV is
highly effective for preventing HIV and is indicated among pregnant WWUD to prevent HIV acquisition. One
goal for the EHE initiative is to increase the percentage of prescriptions among PrEP-eligible individuals to
50% by 2025. Thus, there is an urgent need for research on barriers and facilitators to implementing the HIV
PrEP care continuum for this “multiply disadvantaged” health population. Our leadership team includes
researchers from the University of Miami and service providers, including formerly incarcerated women, from
Ladies Empowerment & Action Program (LEAP), a Miami-based nonprofit organization focused on women’s
reentry. Our study is guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research and proposes to
conduct qualitative interviews and brief surveys with stakeholders and peripregnancy CJ-involved WWUD
(“patients”). The specific aims are to: (1) Engage stakeholders to assess, both quantitatively and qualitatively,
their attitudes towards PrEP, perceived acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility of different PrEP
intervention strategies, and how inner setting (implementation climate, organizational networks, organizational
commitment) and outer setting (local external policies) factors may hinder or facilitate intervention
implementation. (2) Identify qualitatively the multilevel barriers and facilitators to HIV prevention from the
perspective of peripregnancy CJ-involved WWUD and assess through mixed-methods the perceived potential
effectiveness, including acceptability and appropriateness, of different PrEP intervention strategies. Knowledge
gained from this study will have a significant public health impact by informing HIV risk prevention strategies,
and barriers and facilitators to HIV prevention and PrEP uptake among peripregnancy CJ-involved WWU...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10601712
- **Project number:** 3P30MH116867-04S2
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI CORAL GABLES
- **Principal Investigator:** Steven A Safren
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $293,642
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-03-22 → 2024-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10601712

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10601712, PrEP Uptake among Justice Involved Peripregnancy Women Who Use Drugs (3P30MH116867-04S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10601712. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*