• Ashley Townes, Zaneta Gaul, and Kirk D Henny.
• Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Oak Ridge, TN, United States.
• Fam Pract. 2023 Feb 9; 40 (1): 394639-46.

ObjectiveResearch underscores the importance of providers having routine discussions with patients about their sexual health. We examined the occurrences and association of routine sexual health discussion practices and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) clinical care among primary care providers (PCPs) in areas with high HIV prevalence.MethodsWe analysed data collected between April and August 2017 from an online survey that assessed PCPs knowledge, behaviours, attitudes, and practices of HIV-related care in 6 Southeast US jurisdictions (Atlanta, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, District of Columbia, Miami, and New Orleans).ResultsAmong PCPs, we found that 39.2% routinely obtained sexual health histories, 78.5% offered HIV testing, and 16.0% ever prescribed preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Based on adjusted prevalence ratios (aPRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), the proportion of PCPs who routinely obtained sexual histories was higher among female PCPs (aPR = 1.47, 95% CI 1.04, 2.08), PCPs who had a patient population that was >50% men who have sex with men (MSM) (aPR = 1.94, 95% CI 1.72, 2.18), offered HIV testing (aPR = 3.60, 95% CI 2.23, 5.79), and ever prescribed PrEP (aPR = 1.43, 95% CI 1.06, 1.93).ConclusionImproving patient-provider discussions are needed to reduce HIV-related service barriers for disproportionately affected populations.Practice ImplicationsRoutine discussions can reduce barriers to important HIV prevention and care services and help reduce disparities among patients living in highly prevalent HIV locations.© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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