Impact of COVID Pandemic on Sexual Habits and Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Retention in Care in a Community-Based Service

BackgroundCOVID pandemic had a significant impact on most social and medical activities, including sexual habits and access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The aim of our study is to describe the number of subjects who discontinued PrEP after the first lockdown, and the change of sexual behaviors in those who continued despite social restrictions.MethodsThis monocentric, retrospective analysis included all subjects attending a community-based service who started PrEP before February 2020. Data were collected from self-administered questionnaires.ResultsThe analysis included 166 individuals: among them, 56 (33.7%) did not continue attending visits after the first lockdown: the largest part (32, 19.3%) decided to temporarily postpone prophylaxis until the end of the pandemic. One hundred and ten subjects continued PrEP: they were mainly males (98.2%) with a median age of 39 (IQR 32-46) years. After the general lockdown, there were no changes in terms of sexual habits (number of partners and intercourses), number of pills taken, use of alcohol and drugs, and incidence of sexually transmitted infections.ConclusionCOVID-19 had an impact on PrEP users attending a community-based service in terms of persons who stopped the prophylaxis. Nevertheless, in those who decided to continue, sexual habits did not change significantly compared to pre-pandemic period.