Application of Augmented Reality (AR) in HIV Self-test in Men Who Have Sex With Men Community

March 17, 2026 updated by: Tsz Ho Kwan, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Objective: To apply augmented reality (AR) technology in HIV self-test and to assess its impacts in enhancing testing performance among men who have sex with men (MSM).

Design: Parallel randomised controlled, open label, trial. Block randomisation with a block size of 4 would be used to allocate the study arms.

Participants: men who have sex with men in Hong Kong

Intervention: Self-test assisted by AR vs self-test with instruction sheets

Main outcome measures: Effectiveness, usability, learnability, efficiency and satisfaction scores; rate of completion and result upload; acceptability of AR approach in assisting self-test

Anticipated results: 200 MSM would be recruited with 50 and 150 in control and intervention group, respectively. The scores in the intervention group are 10% higher than the control group. Proportion of satisfied participants in the intervention group is 10% more than the control group. AR approach is feasible and acceptable to MSM for assisting in HIV self-test.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

About 200 MSM would be recruited through community-based organisations and Internet channels where MSM socialise and seek partners. Fifty and 150 participants would be randomly assigned into the control and intervention group by block randomisation with a block size of 4, respectively. After giving informed consent, subjects would be invited to complete an online questionnaire and request for an HIV self-test kit in the online portal before randomisation. Participants in the control group would be given a standard commercially available self-test kit which included bilingual instruction sheets. Subjects in the intervention arm would be asked to use the AR element to assist the same standard commercially available self-test kit. All participants would be asked to upload the test result and complete a post-test questionnaire on the usability of the test and the AR approach. The result would be validated by an experienced research staff. Subjects with a positive result would be contacted for follow up. Main outcome measures in this study would include the confidence in performing the self-test and the usability of HIV self-testing between the two arms.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

349

Phase

  • 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 Locations

  • Hong Kong
      • Shatin, 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

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adult men who have sex with men
  • Has access to a smartphone with internet access

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Unable to communicate in written Chinese or English
  • Unable to give informed consent

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: Screening
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention
Participants in the intervention arm will be able to access the augmented reality page in the web app to perform the HIV self-test
Other: Augmented reality
Step-by-step 3D models displayed with augmented reality guiding the self-test procedures
No Intervention: Control
Participants in the control arm will be asked to follow the instruction sheet to perform the HIV self-test

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Confidence in performing the self-test
Time Frame: Month 3
Confidence in performing the self-test in a Likert scale of 1 (least confident) to 10 (most confident)
Month 3

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Usability of the augmented reality web app
Time Frame: Month 3
Score measured by system usability scale ranged from 0 to 100 (higher scores mean more usable)
Month 3
Usability of the augmented reality web app
Time Frame: Month 3
Score measured by single ease question ranged from 1 to 7 (higher scores mean easier)
Month 3
Usability of the augmented reality web app
Time Frame: Month 3
Score measured by after scenario questionnaire (average score of the 3-item questionnaire ranged from 1 to 7, higher scores mean more usable)
Month 3
Usability of the augmented reality web app
Time Frame: Month 3
Score measured by subjective mental effort questionnaire ranged from 0 to 150 (higher scores mean more difficult)
Month 3

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Chinese University of Hong Kong

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Tsz Ho Kwan, PhD, Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care

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)

April 1, 2023

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 29, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

August 29, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 1, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 11, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

March 23, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 19, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 17, 2026

Last Verified

March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • MSS346R

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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