Text Messaging to Promote HIV Testing in Gay Men

November 18, 2025 updated by: Luis Menacho Alvirio, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

Cell Phones for Bringing Gay Men From Internet to the Health Center

The rate of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) remains high among Peruvian men who have sex with men (MSM), and new prevention programs should be developed to reach and provide sexual health services to more MSM. The Internet is a feasible medium both for recruiting participants and for implementing projects with MSM in Lima, Peru. Likewise, in Peru, mobile phones are promising tools for carrying out HIV-related interventions due to the high rate of mobile phone penetration. The Internet is a way to reach MSM who do not attend traditional health centers due to the stigma associated with being homosexual. Since mobile phones can be used to promote health, the investigators proposed to design, implement, and evaluate an intervention using text messages to promote HIV testing among Peruvian MSM recruited online. To achieve this objective, the investigators conducted a randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy of a text message-based intervention to promote HIV testing among MSM in Lima recruited via the Internet.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

400

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

  • Peru
    • Lima Province
      • Lima, Lima Province, Peru
        • Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Be male at birth
  • Be 18 years of age or older
  • Be a resident of Lima, Peru
  • Report having had sex (oral or anal) with another man in the past 12 months
  • Provide informed consent
  • Own a mobile phone

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Report being HIV-positive
  • Have taken an HIV test within the past year

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention arm
Participants received weekly text messages to promote health and HIV testing and were followed and supported by trained healthcare counselors through two-way communication. Participants were able to set up an appointment for HIV testing at no charge.
Behavioral: Text message-based intervention
Participants received weekly text messages to promote health and HIV testing and were followed and supported by trained healthcare counselors through two-way communication over a 12-week period. They were able to schedule a free HIV testing appointment at any time up to six months after enrollment.
No Intervention: Control arm
Participants were able to set up an appointment for HIV testing at no charge.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of participants who received an HIV test
Time Frame: From enrollment to the end of the 6-month follow-up period
Having undergone HIV testing at one of the study-affiliated health centers
From enrollment to the end of the 6-month follow-up period

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

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, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 31, 2015

Study Completion (Actual)

December 31, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 2, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 2, 2025

First Posted (Estimated)

September 10, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

November 24, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 18, 2025

Last Verified

November 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 62406
  • S6 0541-01-10 (Other Grant/Funding Number: Grand Challenges Canada)

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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