Pilot of Mpowerment for Young Men Who Have Sex With Men (YMSM) in Beirut

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: HIV
• Interventions: Behavioral: Mpowerment

• Registration Number: NCT02918799
• Lead Sponsor: RAND

Brief Summary

This project will adapt and pilot a multi-level, community-based intervention to promote HIV prevention and sexual health among young men who have sex with men in Beirut.

Detailed Description

Mpowerment (MP) is an evidence-based community-level, structural, social and behavioral intervention for HIV prevention developed for YMSM that targets individual and community empowerment and mobilization, self-affirmation, sexual self-knowledge, and creation of a supportive social environment. MP has been widely used in the U.S., but not in a mostly Muslim setting. This project will adapt and pilot MP for the sociocultural issues facing YMSM (age 18-29) in Beirut. There will be a 2-year pilot implementation of MP, with longitudinal cohorts of YMSM in Beirut and Jounieh, the latter being the control community. Primary outcomes will be unprotected anal sex and HIV testing, with secondary outcomes being engagement in peer outreach, and perceived peer norms related to condom use and HIV testing.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2016-08
• Study First Submitted: 2016-09-16
• Study First Submitted QC: 2016-09-27
• Study First Posted: 2016-09-29
• Primary Completion: 2020-01
• Study Completion: 2020-03
• Status Verified: 2020-10
• Last Update Submitted: 2020-10-05
• Last Update Posted: 2020-10-06

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: Male
• Target Recruitment: 226

Inclusion Criteria

• men aged 18-29, who have had anal sex with men in the past 6 months

Exclusion Criteria

• not residing in Lebanon

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Community cohort	Mpowerment	Beirut community will receive the multi-component intervention Mpowerment; the community cohort of YMSM will be used to evaluate the effects of the intervention on the community, as the cohort participants may or may not have participated in the intervention.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
condomless anal sex	past 3 months	condomless anal sex with HIV+ or unknown status partners in past 3 months will be assessed via questionnaire
HIV testing	past 6 months	Variable will be assessed via questionnaire