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

December 19, 2021 updated by: Tsz Ho Kwan, Chinese University of Hong Kong
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.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

463

Contacts and Locations

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

Study Locations

  • Hong Kong
      • Sha Tin, Hong Kong
        • Stanley Ho Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases

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

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Male

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Adult men who have sex with men in Hong Kong

Description

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 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

  • Observational Models: Cohort
  • Time Perspectives: Cross-Sectional

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Men who have sex with men
MSM receiving a self-test kit with optional assistance
Diagnostic test: HIV self-test kit
fingerprick and oral fluid HIV self-tests with optional on-site or hotline staff assistance
Other: Graphical User Interface
Gamification or neumorphism user interface

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

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

Secondary Outcome Measures

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

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Chinese University of Hong Kong

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

Helpful Links

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 (Actual)

March 1, 2021

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 12, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

May 12, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 2, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 6, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

May 7, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 11, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 19, 2021

Last Verified

December 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • MSS324R (Other Grant/Funding Number: AIDS Trust Fund)

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

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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