Black women are essential to ending the HIV epidemic in the United States; yet prevention, access, testing, and structural racism affect how HIV disproportionately affects them. Limited public health research focuses on Black women attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and the ability to address HIV prevention, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake. PrEP is a once-daily oral pill used to prevent HIV transmission and has suboptimal uptake within the Black community. This generic qualitative descriptive analysis identifies the barriers and facilitators of PrEP uptake among Black women attending an HBCU using the health belief model. Overall, 22 Black college women participated in a 60-minute focus group. Emergent categories were as follows: (a) Barriers—stigma, cost, and side effects; (b) Facilitators—PrEP's effectiveness, exposure to HIV, and unprotected sex. Our findings can inform future efforts to increase PrEP uptake among Black women attending an HBCU.

Despite HIV/AIDS disproportionately impacting Black women in the United States, HIV knowledge, awareness, and uptake of prevention efforts like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) have been limited for this community. Since campus leaders can maintain the attention of Black college women for a sustained period, they are an ideal demographic for PrEP interventions. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to assess the awareness and knowledge of PrEP among Black Historically Black Colleges and University (HBCU) women, informing future possibilities and strategies for PrEP interventions and uptake. The lead author employed a descriptive, qualitative approach to collect data from five focus groups of Black HBCU women. Within this, the authors examined Black HBCU women’s PrEP knowledge and awareness in their own words and on their own terms. The results revealed that Black HBCU women have notable gaps in knowledge and limited awareness about PrEP and sexual health, with some assuming PrEP is only for men who have sex with men (MSM). Others believed it was used to manage an existing HIV diagnosis. Given that these participants perceived PrEP as primarily for MSMs, there is a clear gap in public health practice. Therefore, it is essential to focus future HIV prevention efforts on college-aged Black women by exploring their perspectives and considering how institutions like student activities, Greek Life, and campus health services can contribute to PrEP education for HIV prevention.