The Biden administration gave $38,367 in taxpayer money to a Texas university to conduct a study run by a graduate student on why gay men think alcohol nullifies HIV medication.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) issued the grant last year to the University of Houston for a study run by Jace Pierce, a social psychology and health Ph.D. candidate. The study focuses on a reported misconception within the gay community that drinking alcohol has a negative impact on the effectiveness of PrEP, an HIV medication.
“For instance, >60% of [men who have sex with men] interested in taking PrEP falsely believe that mixing alcohol with PrEP results in a toxic combination (i.e., interactive toxicity beliefs),” the study description reads. “Like other erroneous beliefs (e.g., HIV is manmade), interactive toxicity beliefs may diffuse across the social network and, subsequently, influence adherence.”
Pierce said the confusion in the gay community about PrEP usage necessitates research.
“These beliefs are multi-faceted as people can have both beliefs related to the direct mixture of both PrEP and alcohol as well as more general beliefs about not taking PrEP while drinking (and/or vice versa),” Pierce wrote in an email to The Dallas Express.
The study, which began on September 1 and is set to run through August 31, 2024, will be conducted through interviews and diary exercises on the part of the subjects.
“The proposed study will employ an egocentric social network interview and a semi-weekly diary phase over five weeks to (1) examine associations between heavy alcohol use and PrEP adherence, and (2) to test alcohol-interactive toxicity beliefs and social network characteristics as risk factors for PrEP non-adherence,” the study description reads.
Taxpayers are paying for the study through the NIH’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The NIH did not respond to a request for comment.
There are more than 1 million people in the United States living with HIV, according to AIDSVu. More than 400,000 take the medication PrEP. Nearly 20,000 people with HIV died in 2020.
The NIH spends roughly $1 billion in taxpayer money annually on HIV research. Such spending included a $360,000 grant for a study that injected male monkeys with female hormones to determine why transgender women have higher rates of HIV. Another $760,000 grant funded a study on how cannabis impacts HIV transmission risk among gay black men in Chicago.
