Online Cohort of Sexual and Gender Minorities: Evaluating Digital Interventions to Improve HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis and Antiretroviral Treatment Uptake and Adherence

August 14, 2026 updated by: Oswaldo Cruz Foundation

Online Cohort of Sexual and Gender Minorities: Evaluating the Effect of Digital Interventions on the Uptake and Adherence to HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis and Antiretroviral Treatment

This study will create and follow an online cohort of sexual and gender minorities in Brazil to better understand the use of HIV prevention and treatment strategies, particularly pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and antiretroviral treatment (ART). Participants will complete online questionnaires at the beginning of the study and every three months for one year to provide information about medication use and adherence, sexual behaviors, HIV prevention and testing, sexually transmitted infections, mental health, and experiences of discrimination in health services.

Participants who are using PrEP or ART and agree to take part in the intervention will be randomly assigned to receive either a digital intervention or no digital intervention. The digital intervention will consist of weekly WhatsApp messages for six months, including reminders and information intended to support adherence to PrEP or ART.

The main question of the study is whether weekly WhatsApp messages can improve adherence to PrEP or ART among sexual and gender minorities in Brazil. The study hypothesis is that participants who receive the digital intervention will have higher adherence to PrEP or ART than participants who do not receive the intervention.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

3000

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 Contact

Study Locations

  • Brazil
    • Rio de Janeiro
      • Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 21040-360
        • Recruiting
        • Instituto Nacional de Infectologia Evandro Chagas
        • Contact:

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:

male sex assigned at birth and identifying as a man, travesti, transgender person, or non-binary person; age ≥18 years; residing in Brazil; access to the internet; and self-reporting sex with a man in the past 12 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

incorrectly answering the attention-check questions; and incomplete responses, defined as not reaching the end of the screening questionnaire

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: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Weekly WhatsApp Messages
Participants receiving weekly WhatsApp messages for 6 months to support adherence to PrEP or ART, including medication reminders and brief standardized HIV prevention and treatment information.
Behavioral: Weekly WhatsApp Adherence Messages
Participants randomized to the intervention arm will receive weekly WhatsApp messages for 6 months designed to support adherence to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) or antiretroviral therapy (ART). Messages will include medication reminders and brief, standardized information related to HIV prevention and treatment. Messages will be delivered through a scheduled automated system.
No Intervention: No Weekly Messages
Participants will receive the standard study follow-up procedures without the weekly WhatsApp adherence messages.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Medication Adherence to PrEP or ART
Time Frame: Baseline and Months 3, 6, 9, and 12
Medication adherence will be assessed using a visual analog scale in which participants report the percentage of prescribed PrEP or ART doses taken during the previous 30 days, from 0% to 100%. Participants reporting adherence greater than 95% will be classified as adherent. The primary analysis will compare the proportion of participants classified as adherent between the weekly WhatsApp intervention and control groups over follow-up.
Baseline and Months 3, 6, 9, and 12

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Medication Adherence to PrEP
Time Frame: Baseline and Months 3, 6, 9, and 12
Self-reported adherence to PrEP during the previous 30 days, measured using a 0% to 100% visual analog scale. Participants reporting adherence greater than 95% will be classified as adherent. Adherence will be evaluated over follow-up and compared between intervention and control groups among participants using PrEP.
Baseline and Months 3, 6, 9, and 12

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Oswaldo Cruz Foundation

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)

May 25, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 14, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 14, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

August 19, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 19, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 14, 2026

Last Verified

August 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 89404825.2.0000.5262

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.

Subscribe