The Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC) has honored research led by Anne Teitelman, associate professor emerita in Penn Nursing’s department of family and community health, as the 2021 JANAC (Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care) Article of the Year.

Dr. Teitelman’s research team and their article, “Just4Us: Development of a Counselor Navigator and Text Message Intervention to Promote PrEP Uptake Among Cisgender Women at Elevated Risk for HIV,” will be honored during the 34th Annual ANAC Conference in Washington, D.C., November 11-13, 2021. 

“In the United States, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake among eligible cisgender women has been slow, despite the availability of oral PrEP since 2012,” said Dr. Teitelman and her team in their article’s abstract. “Although women make up nearly 20 percent of those living with HIV, there are currently few PrEP uptake interventions for cisgender women at elevated risk for acquiring HIV. This research describes the process used to design and pre-pilot test Just4Us, a theory-based behavioral intervention to promote PrEP initiation and adherence among PrEP-eligible cisgender women.”

“This award recognizes the importance of research aimed at promoting informed decision-making about PrEP among cisgender women who could benefit from biomedical HIV prevention. PrEP can be empowering as it is a woman-controlled HIV prevention modality,” said Dr. Teitelman. “The Just4Us intervention is among the first to address the lack of widespread awareness of PrEP, misinformation, and limited access among cisgender women in the U.S.”