Onboarding Positives and PrEP Users to Engage Negatives (OPPEN): Peer-driven Education to Link YMSM of Color to PrEP

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: HIV
• Interventions: Behavioral: Control Condition; Behavioral: OPPEN

• Registration Number: NCT05356910
• Lead Sponsor: University of California, San Diego

Brief Summary

Onboarding Positives and PrEP users to Engage Negatives (OPPEN) is an intervention to train young men who have sex with men (YMSM) of color living with HIV or using pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to promote PrEP use among HIV-negative YMSM of color in their social networks. This pilot randomized controlled trial will evaluate OPPEN's acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary effect on PrEP care engagement among YMSM of color.

Detailed Description

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake has been slow among young men who have sex with men (YMSM), particularly those of color who experience a high rate of new HIV infections in the United States. Limited PrEP knowledge, unfamiliarity with how to access PrEP, medical mistrust, and stigma are barriers to PrEP care engagement among YMSM, including those of color. Peer-driven social network interventions that train individuals as peer educators to disseminate information about HIV prevention and treatment within their social networks have been implemented to address similar barriers and improve HIV outcomes within hard to reach populations. YMSM of color engaged in HIV/PrEP care often employ resilience processes to overcome socio-structural barriers to HIV prevention and care. As such, training YMSM of color engaged in HIV/PrEP care as peer PrEP educators may position them as credible sources of PrEP information who can influence behavior change (i.e., PrEP care engagement) among YMSM peers of color in their social networks via their ability to disseminate culturally competent PrEP messages in the context of their personal experiences using these resilience processes to navigate the healthcare system, medical mistrust, and stigma. Drawing on existing peer-driven social network interventions, the diffusion of innovations and information-motivation-behavioral skills models, and Harper et al.'s resilience framework, this study will develop and pilot Onboarding Positives and PrEP users to Engage Negatives (OPPEN), a peer-driven PrEP education social network intervention, among YMSM of color in San Diego, California. Through three small-group and two one-on-one sessions, OPPEN will train YMSM of color engaged in HIV/PrEP care to be peer PrEP educators within their social networks. In Phase I, OPPEN was developed, pretested, and refined using an iterative process that integrated feedback elicited from YMSM of color living with HIV and YMSM using PrEP trained via OPPEN as well as HIV-negative YMSM who could benefit from PrEP (AIM 1). In Phase II, OPPEN will be piloted in a randomized controlled trial with 70 YMSM of color engaged in HIV/PrEP care (i.e., indexes; up to two-thirds engaged in PrEP care) randomly assigned to OPPEN (n=35) or a time- and attention-matched control condition (n=35). All indexes will receive coupons to recruit YMSM peers of color within their social networks to the study. Assuming \~2 peers will be recruited per index, \~140 peers will present at the study site (i.e., peer-recruits) and undergo HIV testing. HIV-negative peer-recruits interested in PrEP will be scheduled for a PrEP clinic visit. Data collected via surveys (baseline and 3-month study visits) and medical records will be used to evaluate the preliminary effect of OPPEN on PrEP interest, linkage, and uptake among peer-recruits (AIM 2) and theory-based mechanisms targeted by OPPEN among indexes and peer-recruits (AIM 3). OPPEN acceptability and feasibility will be evaluated using a mixed-methods approach (AIM 4).

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2022-04-07
• Study First Submitted: 2022-04-26
• Study First Submitted QC: 2022-04-26
• Study First Posted: 2022-05-02
• Primary Completion: 2024-07-31
• Study Completion: 2024-08-31
• Status Verified: 2024-12
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-12-09
• Last Update Posted: 2024-12-13

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: Male
• Target Recruitment: 78

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

• Persons who meet the criteria above will be eligible, no other exclusion criteria will apply.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Control Condition	Control Condition	The time- and attention-matched control condition consists of three small-group and two one-on-one sessions to support diet and nutrition behavior change.
OPPEN Intervention	OPPEN	OPPEN consists of three small-group and two one-on-one sessions to train YMSM of color engaged in HIV or PrEP care to be peer PrEP educators within their social networks.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
PrEP linkage	3-month follow-up	Self-reported via survey and abstracted from medical record
PrEP interest	Baseline	Self-reported via survey
PrEP uptake	3-month follow-up	Self-reported via survey and abstracted from medical record

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
OPPEN feasibility	Baseline and 3-month follow-up	Self-reported via survey and exit interview
PrEP behavioral skills	Baseline	Self-reported via survey
PrEP information	Baseline	Self-reported via survey
PrEP motivation	Baseline	Self-reported via survey
PrEP conversations with peers	Baseline and 3-month follow-up	Self-reported via survey
OPPEN acceptability	Baseline and 3-month follow-up	Self-reported via survey and exit interview

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of California, San Diego; 🇺🇸 San Diego, California, United States