(P133) NAVIGATING PREVENTION IN RURAL COMMUNITIES: OKLAHOMA’S STATEWIDE CONDOM DISTRIBUTION PROGRAM

Background:
Oklahoma continually has high rates of STIs and high rural burden of HIV. With Oklahoma being mostly rural, access to basic prevention resources remains a challenge. As a result, a Condom Distribution Program was created by the Sexual Health and Harm Reduction Service (SHHRS) within the Oklahoma State Department of Health to increase access to free condoms and lube in rural areas and statewide. The program allows for online ordering and anonymous mail-based delivery to persons and facilities.

Methods:
Facility addresses and person addresses were geocoded to assess participation across the state, utilizing SAS and ArcGIS for data analysis. SHHRS partnered with the Oklahoma HIV and Hepatitis Planning Council to expand website to enable online ordering. SHHRS has also leveraged funding from various federal sources: HIV prevention, hepatitis prevention and STI prevention. SHHRS is also working to improve quality of data collection by developing a REDCap tool.

Results:
From 2020 to 2023, the number of condoms distributed to facilities by the program increased by more than five and a half times and included facilities in 46 of the 77 counties in Oklahoma. Similarly, the number of condoms distributed to individuals increased from 1,420 to 44,340. Oklahoma also had broad uptake by individuals geographically, with requests coming from 68 of the 77 counties. More specifically, 31.1% of condoms ordered were sent to persons living outside of the Oklahoma City and Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Areas.

Conclusion:
The condom distribution program in Oklahoma has been widely utilized across the state by both individual persons as well as facilities. SHHRS has also seen demonstrable increases in the number of requests since the program started. Facility addresses and person addresses were geocoded to assess participation across the state and SHHRS found strong participation from rural areas.