Beta Testing of a Smartphone App for HIV Prevention in Malaysian MSM

This project will involve beta testing of the JomPrEP app to assess its usability and acceptability among Malaysian MSM.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: HIV Prevention Program
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: App usage assessments and analytics

Detailed Description

Given the evolving HIV epidemic among MSM and their challenges with accessing prevention services, we previously proposed to adapt, expand, and refine an existing app (namely the HealthMindr app) to deliver an integrated HIV prevention intervention that will promote HIV testing and linkage to PrEP and that incorporates screening and support for P/SUD for Malaysian MSM. We now plan to conduct expanded beta testing of the newly designed JomPrEP app to assess its usability and acceptability among Malaysian MSM.

Following wireframing and usability testing, Keymind (an experienced mobile app development company that has significant experience in building HIPAA-compliant apps, including HealthMindr) will apply a user interface (UI) design (i.e., colors/branding) to the interactive prototype, followed by the final development of the app (beta version). The objective of this study is to beta test this app to identify potential bugs and to ensure its usability in a real-world setting.

As part of the expanded beta testing, we will also evaluate the design, functionality, and usability of the JomPrEP app. This step is a critical stage of app development and will increase the ability of our research team to develop an acceptable and effective app.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 50
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Malaysia
  • Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
    • University of Malaya

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: Male

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• HIV-negative MSM
• Age more than or equal to 18
• Cis-gender men
• Condomless sex in the last 30 days
• Own a smartphone

Exclusion Criteria:

• Unable to provide informed consent
• Unable to read and understand English or Bahasa Malaysia

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
• Allocation: NA
• Interventional Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

EXPERIMENTAL: Expanded beta testing of the JomPrEP app; App usage assessments and analytics over a 1-month period.

Other: App usage assessments and analytics; All participants will be given a brief overview of the purpose of the study followed by a survey on participant characteristics and barriers to accessing HIV testing and PrEP uptake and P/SUD support services. The participant will be observed downloading the JomPrEP app and instructed with a brief tutorial on the onboarding process. The participant will be told to keep the app for 1 month and encouraged to use all app components. At 30 days, the participant will complete a post-survey, to which the Systems Usability Scale will be added. App analytics will also be collected (e.g., the number of logins). Participants will be asked to provide feedback on functionality, performance, and errors encountered, motivation to use the app, overall experiences using the app, feedback for further refinement, and subjective impact of the app on HIV prevention.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Usability of the JomPrEP app through the System Usability Scale	The Systems Usability Scale (SUS) will be used to assess the subjective usability of the app.	1 month
Usability of the JomPrEP app through app analytics	The investigators will collect app analytics, such as the number of log-ins to assess usability.	1 month
Usability of the JomPrEP app through app analytics	The investigators will collect app analytics, such as session duration to assess usability.	1 month
Usability of the JomPrEP app through app analytics	The investigators will collect app analytics, such as pages visited to assess usability.	1 month
Usability of the JomPrEP app through app analytics	The investigators will collect app analytics, such as frequency of use of app components to assess usability.	1 month
Usability of the JomPrEP app through app analytics	The investigators will collect app analytics, such as the duration of use of app components to assess usability.	1 month
Usability of the JomPrEP app through interviews	Participants will be asked to provide qualitative feedback on functionality, performance, and errors encountered, motivation to use the app, overall experiences using the app, feedback for further refinement, and subjective impact of the app on HIV prevention outcomes.	1 month
Acceptability of the JomPrEP app through the System Usability Scale	Point estimates for mean acceptability ≥50 for the System Usability Scale will be considered the minimum criteria for acceptability. The higher the score, the better the outcome. Minimum score for the scale is 0, maximum score is 100.	1 month
Acceptability of the JomPrEP app through calculated proportions	Proportion of participants accessing the app >0.60 will be considered the minimum criteria for acceptability.	1 month

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Feasibility of the JomPrEP app through the System Usability Scale	Point estimates for mean acceptability ≥50 for the System Usability Scale will be considered the minimum criteria for feasibility. The higher the score, the better the outcome. Minimum score for the scale is 0, highest score is 100.	1 month
Feasibility of the JomPrEP app through calculated proportions	Proportion accessing the app >0.60 will be considered the minimum criteria for feasibility.	1 month

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Connecticut
• Collaborators: Yale University; University of Malaya

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• Naeem F, Syed Y, Xiang S, et al. Development, Testing and Reporting of Mobile Apps for Psycho-social Interventions: Lessons from the Pharmaceuticals. Journal of Medical Diagnostic Methods. 2015;4(4).
• Bangor A, Kortum PT, Miller JT. An Empirical Evaluation of the System Usability Scale. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. 2008;24(6):574-594.
• Bangor A, Kortum P, Miller J. Determining what individual SUS scores mean: adding an adjective rating scale. J. Usability Studies. 2009;4(3):114-123.
• Brooke J, Jordan P, Thomas B, Weerdmeester B, McClelland I. Usability evaluation in industry. SUS: a'quick and dirty'usability scale. 1996:184-194.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): March 13, 2022
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): April 24, 2022
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): April 24, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 25, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 13, 2021
• First Posted (ACTUAL): September 22, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): September 1, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 31, 2022
• Last Verified: August 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: PrEP; mHealth; mobile application
• Other Study ID Numbers: R21TW011665 (NIH)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No