Leveraging Chatbot to Improve PrEP in the Southern United States

July 1, 2026 updated by: Yale University

Leveraging Chatbot Technology to Improve PrEP Awareness and Uptake Among Black MSM in the Southern United States

The purpose of this study is to develop a chatbot intervention to promote PrEP awareness and uptake among Black men who have sex with men (MSM) in the Southern United States.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

In the United States (US), the epicenter of the HIV epidemic is in the South. The HIV-related death rate in the US South is high, but engagement with quality HIV prevention services and care is low. Although only 38% of the US population lives in the South, the region accounts for 51% of new HIV infections. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) account for 60% of new infections among African Americans in the South. Black MSM are one of the most vulnerable groups to HIV transmission in the US. HIV testing and PrEP uptake in Black MSM, however, remain low (10%) due to multiple factors including stigma, sexual-orientation based discrimination and low PrEP awareness among Black MSM. Innovative strategies that motivate and provide guidance for PrEP among Black MSM in the US South are therefore urgently needed. Chatbot technology should be tested and implemented to help improve PrEP awareness and uptake in the US South. In this project, the investigators aim to develop and pilot test to assess the acceptability and feasibility of a chatbot for PrEP awareness and uptake relative to treatment as usual (control).

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
145

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Florida
      • Miami, Florida, United States, 33127
        • Care 4 U Community Health Center
      • Pembroke Pines, Florida, United States, 33027
        • Community Care Resources of FL (CCRSFL)
    • Georgia
      • Atlanta, Georgia, United States, 30318
        • NAESM, Inc
    • North Carolina
      • Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, 28202
        • RAO Community Health

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Being cisgender Black male
  • Being aged ≥ 18 years
  • Having Internet access
  • Speaking English
  • Self-reporting condomless sex with another man in the past 6 months
  • HIV negative or untested.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Having lived in the US South less than 3 months
  • Having received antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Intervention group
Device: A chatbot designed to promote PrEP awareness and uptake for Black MSM
Participants in the intervention group will have access to a theory-informed (Self-Determination Theory) chatbot and receive an automated personalized question message (root-node message) from the chatbot. The root-node messages are questions written into the chatbot algorithms to initiate interactive communication with participants. In each round of the interactive communication, the chatbot will provide automated personalized PrEP-related information, autonomous motivation, and psychological needs based on Self-Determination Theory constructs.
Placebo Comparator: Control group
Other: General educational messages
Participants in the control group will received general education messages from a research assistant including healthy diet, exercise, and COVID-19 prevention. The frequency of contact will be pre-specified by participants in interviews prior to the RCT.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change from baseline PrEP awareness in 90 days
Time Frame: At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days
PrEP awareness will be measured as the proportion of participants who are aware of PrEP. Specifically, the investigators will collect PrEP awareness by asking participants standardized questions through a Qualtrics survey.
At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days
Change from baseline PrEP uptake in 90 days
Time Frame: At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days
PrEP uptake will be measured as the mean of the frequency of taking PrEP medication. Specifically, the investigators will collect PrEP uptake by asking participants through a Qualtrics survey if they have been taken PrEP at baseline and every 30 days. If participants respond that they have taken PrEP, the investigators will ask them the date and frequency of taking it and ask them to upload a photo of their PrEP for verification to reduce social desirability bias in responses.
At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Usability score
Time Frame: At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days
The usability score will be measured by the System Usability Scale, which is 5-point Likert scale consisted of 10 questions. Participants' scores range from 0 to 100. A score of 68 is average, below 68 is poor, above 68 is good, and above 80.3 is excellent.
At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days
Change in Recommendation score
Time Frame: At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days
The recommendation score will be calculated by a Net Promote Score, which measures MSM's likelihood to recommend the chatbot to other MSM friends. The score ranges from 0 to 10. The higher the score, the better the recommendation score.
At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days
Change in Acceptability score
Time Frame: At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days
Acceptability, defined as the extent to which the chatbot is suitable and satisfactory to MSM, will be measured using the standardized Customer Satisfaction Scale "How would you rate your overall satisfaction with the chatbot?" and a 5-point Likert question "How would you rate the likelihood of continuing to use the chatbot?"
At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days
Change in Practicality score
Time Frame: At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days
Practicality defined as the extent to which the chatbot provides real-time Self-Determination theory inputs, will be measured using a 5-point Likert question "How would you rate the overall quality of the chatbot?"
At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days
Change in Demand score
Time Frame: At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days
Demand, defined as the level of integration to which the chatbot fits into the MSM-preferred online platform, will be measured by the number of actual use documented on developer's platform.
At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days
Change in Adaptation score
Time Frame: At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days
Adaptation, defined as the extent to which the chatbot can be integrated into other social-networking apps, will be measured by asking "How likely would you use the chatbot if embedded on other apps?"
At baseline, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Yale University

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
Gilead Sciences

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Zhao Ni, Yale University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
July 20, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
February 28, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
July 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
May 22, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
July 27, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
August 1, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
July 2, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
July 1, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 2000035242
  • 000 (Other Identifier: CTGTY)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

Yes

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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