Social Network Approach for Increasing Testing Coverage Among Men Who Have Sex With Men

Completed

• Conditions: HIV Infections
• Interventions: Diagnostic Test: HIV self-test kit; Other: Graphical User Interface

• Registration Number: NCT04379206
• Lead Sponsor: Chinese University of Hong Kong

Brief Summary

HIV testing is essential in shortening the time to identify a new infection, the first 90 of the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets. However, over one-third of the men who have sex with men (MSM) had never been tested for HIV; even if they did, one-fifth had their tests done more than a year ago. Assortative mixing pattern observed in the HIV-positive MSM group shaped the transmission dynamics and could be leveraged for intervention. Barriers to access HIV testing services could, on the other hand, be hurdled by self-tests. A network approach for intervention could therefore be promising in delivering effective HIV self-tests. To experiment with such an approach, a 2-phase study was conceptualised incorporating actual network-based referred HIV self-tests and an agent-based simulation evaluating its impact. Sixty-four MSM would be recruited as seeds for promoting HIV self-tests within their network and those being referred could refer their friends for the same after passing online training. To facilitate the process, an online platform would be developed offering information, collecting informed consent, requesting HIV self-test kits, returning results, performing online training, and referring peers. Participants could opt to receive self-tests by delivery or to conduct it on-site with staff assistance. A hotline with video conferencing support would be maintained to assist those who self-test at home. They could also choose between blood and oral fluid tests. Two user interfaces, namely gamification and neumorphism, would be randomly assigned. Primary outcomes to measure are number and proportion of MSM who had never or not tested within 12 months and the associating factors, and usability of the two user interfaces. Data collected in the empirical study would be used for parameterising the agent-based simulation to evaluate the impact of the approach in increasing testing coverage and shortening time to diagnosis. Its economic assessment would also be performed to cost each new infection to be identified. The approach could be feasible and effective to be adopted for future broader implementation for peer-led HIV self-test kit or HIV prevention message distribution.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2020-05-02
• Study First Submitted QC: 2020-05-06
• Study First Posted: 2020-05-07
• Study Start: 2021-03-01
• Primary Completion: 2021-05-12
• Study Completion: 2021-05-12
• Status Verified: 2021-12
• Last Update Submitted: 2021-12-19
• Last Update Posted: 2022-01-11

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: Male
• Target Recruitment: 463

Inclusion Criteria

• male
• had sex with another male in the preceding year
• able to communicate in written Chinese or English
• normally resided in Hong Kong

Exclusion Criteria

• prisoners
• having mental illnesses that informed consent cannot be obtained

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Men who have sex with men	Graphical User Interface	MSM receiving a self-test kit with optional assistance
Men who have sex with men	HIV self-test kit	MSM receiving a self-test kit with optional assistance

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
effectiveness of the approach in reaching MSM who have never or not recently tested for HIV	Through study completion, at year 2	proportion of testers who have never or not recently tested for HIV
Usability and acceptability of two user interfaces	Through study completion, at year 2	System Usability Scores (SUS) and proportion of testers giving a score of at least 71

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Proportion and characteristics of promoters	Through study completion, at year 2	Promoters are testers giving an SUS score of at least 80
Preference of two forms of HIV self-testing	Through study completion, at year 2	Proportion of testers favouring each form of self-testing
Effect of network-based HIV self-test promotion in controlling transmission among MSM	Through study completion, at year 2	Number of infections identified from the agent-based model
Determinants of key actors in the social network	Through study completion, at year 2	Network metrics predicting important actors in the referral network

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Stanley Ho Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases; 🇭🇰 Sha Tin, Hong Kong