Crowdsourcing to Promote HBV and HCV Testing in China

University of North Carolina (UNC)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Hepatitis C; Hepatitis; Hepatitis B

Treatments: Other: Control; Behavioral: Crowdsourced materials

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03482388

18-0251

Details and patient eligibility

About

This is an online randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing men who have sex with men (MSM) exposed to a crowdsourced intervention to MSM who did not receive the intervention to determine the effect on Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) testing. Participants will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to intervention or control using a computer-based allocation system. Participants will be assessed for primary and secondary outcomes four weeks after randomization.

Full description

700 MSM will be recruited through social media operated by gay organizations in China. Eligible participants will be born biologically male, age 16 years or older, report previous anal sex with another man, and reside in China. Men self-reporting previous HBV vaccination, HBV testing, or HCV testing will be excluded. After completing a baseline online survey, participants will be randomly assigned to intervention or control arms with a 1:1 allocation ratio. The intervention will include two components: (1) a multimedia component will deliver two videos and two images promoting HBV and HCV testing developed through a crowdsourcing contest in China. (2) A participatory component will invite men to submit suggestions for how to improve crowdsourced videos and images. The control arm will not view any images or videos and will not be invited to submit suggestions. All participants will be offered reimbursement for HBV and HCV testing costs. The primary outcome is HBV and HCV test uptake confirmed through electronic submission of test report photos within four weeks of enrollment. Secondary outcomes include self-reported HBV and HCV test uptake, HBV vaccination uptake, and change in stigma toward people living with HBV measured through a follow-up survey after four weeks. Men with primary and secondary outcomes will be calculated using intention to treat and as-exposed analyses and compared using two-sided 95% confidence intervals.

Enrollment: 700 patients

Sex: Male

Ages: 16+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 16 years of age or older
• male
• report having had anal sex with another man at least once in the past
• currently reside in China
• willing to provide working mobile phone number and WeChat account

Exclusion criteria

• previous HBV vaccination
• previous HBV testing
• previous HCV testing

Trial design

Primary purpose: Screening

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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700 participants in 2 patient groups

Crowdsourced intervention

Experimental group

Description:

A multimedia component will deliver two videos and two images promoting HBV and HCV testing developed through a crowdsourcing contest in China. A participatory component will invite men to submit suggestions for how to improve crowdsourced videos and images.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Crowdsourced materials

Control

Other group

Description:

No images or videos will be viewed, and suggestions for improving hepatitis testing materials will not be collected.

Treatment:

Other: Control