Young Men and Media Study

Not Applicable

Completed

Conditions: Sexual Behavior

Interventions: Behavioral: Available websites on safe sex and preventing STIs
Behavioral: Young Men & Media Program

Registration Number: NCT04109443

Lead Sponsor: Boston University

Brief Summary: Adolescent sexual minority males (ASMM) continue to account for a disproportionate number of HIV infections in the United States. Racial and ethnic minority populations are particularly affected. Increased HIV rates reflect sexual risk behaviors during early sexual experiences. Research suggests that initial sexual risk-taking occurs during adolescence among sexual minority males. Therefore, it is important for HIV prevention interventions to target adolescent sexual minority males. Targeting sexual minority males during adolescence will help them learn and establish healthy sexual behaviors early in their psychosexual development, which will have both immediate and long-term health benefits.To promote adolescent sexual minority males' critical examination of online media and decrease their sexual risk-taking, this study proposes an exploratory clinical trial to pilot test an online sexual health media literacy intervention that was developed during formative research for feasibility and acceptability. Overall, the proposed research has the potential to reach a wide audience of sexual minority males early in their sexual development, ultimately decreasing their sexual risk-taking and reducing the number of new HIV infections in this population.

Detailed Description: Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: Male

Target Recruitment: 154

Inclusion Criteria

Self-identify as sexual minority
Have intentionally accessed SEOM
Have a valid personal email address
Be a US resident
Be new to the study

Exclusion Criteria

Are unwilling or unable to provide informed assent
Are unable to understand and read English
Do not have the appropriate device and necessary software to experience all the intervention content

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Control group	Available websites on safe sex and preventing STIs	Participants randomized to the control group will have access to available websites (such as by the CDC) that provide information about sexual health and preventing sexually transmitted infections including HIV. They will complete three assessments at baseline, post-intervention, and a 3 month follow-up.
Young Men & Media Program group	Young Men & Media Program	Participants randomized to the Young Men and Media Program group will have access to the online sexual health media literacy materials. They will also complete three assessments at baseline, post-intervention, and a 3 month follow-up.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Feasibility of the Media Literacy Intervention Based on Time Spent on the Intervention	90 minutes	The time spent on each piece of intervention content will be determined from their online use.
Number and Percentage of Participants Who Complete All the Intervention Content	90 minutes	The online intervention will track what intervention content is viewed and the rate of participants who complete of all content will be calculated.
Study Feasibility Based on the Overall Recruitment Rate	approximately 4.5 months	The overall recruitment rate will be calculated by dividing the total number of participants enrolled (n=154) by the total number of eligible potential participants from the initial online screener (n=422).
Study Feasibility Based on Banner ad Click Through Rate for All Participants Combined	approximately 4.5 months	The banner click through rate will be calculated as the proportion of banner ads that participants click each week and then averaged for an overall rate at the end of study completion.
Mean Participant Satisfaction of the Intervention Content Areas Based on a 5 Star Rating System	90 minutes	Participants will be asked to rate each of the 9 content area using a 5-star rating system where 1 star is the lowest and 5 stars is the highest rating. A mean of all ratings will be calculated. The closer the mean is to 5.0, the higher the satisfaction with the content areas. Participants will also be given the option of providing written feedback on each piece of content as well.
Count and Percentage of Participants Who Are Retained Through All Assessments	approximately 4.5 months	The percentage of participants who completed all assessments divided by the number of enrolled participants

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Number of Sexual Partners	Baseline, 3 months	Participants will be asked information about the number of sex partners in the prior 3 months.
Number of Condomless Sex Acts With Male Partners	Baseline, 3 months	Participants will be asked information about the number of condomless sex acts with male partners in the prior 3 months.
Change in 8-item Sexually Explicit Online Media (SEOM) Literacy Scale	Baseline, 3 weeks, 3 months	Self-reported agreement with statements about SEOM. Each item is scored 0-4 (0=strongly disagree; 4=strongly agree), yielding a total score of 0-32 with higher scores indicating more agreement with less SEOM literacy.
Change in 6-item Condom Use and Attitudes Scale	Baseline, 3 weeks, 3 months	Self-reported agreement with statements about condom use. Each item is scored 0-4 (0=strongly disagree; 4=strongly agree), yielding a total score of 0-24 with higher scores indicating more agreement that condom use interferes with sexual intimacy.
Change in 4-item SEOM Knowledge Scale	Baseline, 3 weeks, 3 months	Self-reported assessment of True/False statements about SEOM. Each item will be scored as 0-1 (0=incorrect, 1=correct), yielding a total score of 0-4 with higher scores indicating higher levels of knowledge.
Knowledge of HIV and STI Transmission and Prevention	Baseline, 3 weeks, 3 months	A 52-item sexual health knowledge scale will be used to assess HIV/STI knowledge. The scale presents self-reported assessment of True/False statements about HIV and STI transmission and prevention. Each item will be scored as 0-1 (0=incorrect; 1=correct), yielding a total score of 0-52 with higher scores indicating higher levels of HIV/STI knowledge.