TY - JOUR AU - Winter, Babette L. AU - Hovaguimian, Frédérique AU - Kouyos, Roger D. AU - Schmidt, Axel Jeremias AU - Bernasconi, Enos AU - Braun, Dominique L. AU - Calmy, Alexandra AU - Notter, Julia AU - Stoeckle, Marcel AU - Surial, Bernard AU - Christinet, Vanessa AU - Cavassini, Matthias AU - Depmeier, Carsten AU - Läuchli, Severin AU - Boffi El Amari, Emmanuelle AU - Reinacher, Matthias AU - Rasi, Manuela AU - Bruggmann, Philip AU - Haerry, David AU - Bize, Raphaël AU - Low, Nicola AU - Lehner, Andreas AU - Quednow, Boris B. AU - Fehr, Jan S. AU - Hampel, Benjamin PY - 2022/06/27 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Changes in mental and sexual health among MSM using HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: longitudinal analysis of the SwissPrEPared cohort study JF - Swiss Medical Weekly JA - Swiss Med Wkly VL - 152 IS - 2526 SE - Original article DO - 10.4414/SMW.2022.w30192 UR - https://smw.ch/index.php/smw/article/view/3223 SP - w30192 AB - <p><p>BACKGROUND: Changes in mental and sexual health among men having sex with men (MSM) due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic remain unclear.</p><p>METHODS: Design: Longitudinal analysis of an ongoing, multicentre, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) cohort (NCT03893188) in Switzerland. Participants: HIV-negative MSM aged ≥18 who completed at least one questionnaire before and one after the start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Outcomes: Primary: mental health, defined as anxiety and depression scores assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-4. Secondary: sexual behaviour, well-being, PrEP use and disruption of care. Outcomes were assessed over seven periods corresponding to different SARS-CoV-2 prevention measures in Switzerland. We performed pairwise comparisons between periods (Wilcoxon signed rank test).</p><p>RESULTS: Data from 1,043 participants were included. Whilst anxiety scores remained stable over time, depression scores worsened in the second wave and the second lockdown period compared to pre-pandemic scores. This was confirmed by pairwise comparisons (pre-SARS-CoV-2/second wave and pre-SARS-CoV-2/second lockdown: p &lt;0.001). Downward trends in sexual activity,sexualized substance use, and a switch from daily to "event-driven" PrEP were found. Disruption of care affected 42.6% (790/1856) of daily PrEP users’ follow-up visits.</p><p>CONCLUSION: In this longitudinal analysis of a PrEP cohort enrolling MSM, depression scores worsened in the second wave and the second lockdown compared to the pre-pandemic period.</p></p> ER -