Adaptation and Reach of a Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Social Marketing Campaign for Latino, Latina, and Latinx Populations: Development Study

Abstract

Background: Latino/a/x individuals remain disproportionately impacted by HIV, particularly Latino/a/x men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TW). Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an effective means of biomedical HIV prevention, but awareness and uptake remain low among marginalized Latino/a/x populations. Social marketing campaigns have demonstrated promise in promoting PrEP in other populations but are poorly studied in Latino/a/x MSM and TW.Objective: 1) To adapt and pilot a PrEP social marketing campaign tailored to Latino/a/x MSM and TW through communitybased participatory research (CBPR), and 2) To evaluate the reach and ad performance of the adapted PrEP social marketing campaign Methods: We used the assessment, decision, adaptation, production, topical experts-integration, training, testing (ADAPT-ITT) framework for adapting evidence-based interventions (EBIs) for new settings or populations. This manuscript presents how each phase of the ADAPT-ITT framework was applied via CBPR to create the PrEPárate ("Be PrEPared") campaign. Campaign reach and ad performance was measured through social media platform metrics and website data. Results:The PrEPárate campaign reached over 118,750 people over social media (55,750 over Meta, 63,000 over TikTok). In the first year, there were 5,006 visitors to the website.Conclusions: Adaptation of an existing EBI served as an effective method for developing a PrEP social marketing campaign for Latino/a/x individuals. CBPR and strong community partnerships were essential to tailor materials and systematically address barriers to PrEP access. Social marketing is a promising strategy to improve awareness and access to PrEP among underserved Latino/a/x populations.