Evaluating an Innovative HIV Self-testing Service With Counseling Provided by a Chatbot

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Status: Not yet enrolling

Conditions: Behaviors, Health

Treatments: Behavioral: HIVST-Chatbot (HIV self-testing services with counseling provided by a Chatbot); Behavioral: HIVST-OIC (HIV self-testing services with counseling provided by administrators)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05796622

MSS349R

Details and patient eligibility

About

A parallel-group non-inferiority randomized controlled trial will then be conducted to evaluate the performance of HIVST-Chatbot. A total of 528 Hong Kong Chinese speaking men who have sex with men (MSM) aged ≥18 years who have access to live-chat applications are recruited from multiple sources. Those who are diagnosed as HIV positive are excluded. Participants are 1:1 randomized into the intervention group (n=264) or the control group (n=264). The research team will implement the HIVST-Chatbot (HIVST services with real-time counselling provided by a fully-automated artificial intelligence Chatbot) in the intervention group and HIVST-OIC (HIVST with real-time counselling provided by trained administrators) in the control group. Participants completed two telephone surveys at baseline and six months afterwards.

Enrollment: 564 estimated patients

Sex: Male

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Hong Kong Chinese-speaking men aged at least 18 years old
• Having had anal intercourse with at least one man in the past six months
• Willing to leave contact information and be followed up at Month 6
• Having access to the online live-chat application (WhatsApp)
• Not intending to leave Hong Kong for one month consecutively within the next six months

Exclusion criteria

• Self-reported as HIV positive

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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564 participants in 2 patient groups

HIVST-Chatbot (HIV self-testing services with counseling provided by a Chatbot)

Experimental group

Description:

Promote and implement HIV self-testing (HIVST) services with real-time counselling provided by a fully-automated artificial intelligence Chatbot (HIVST-Chatbot)

Treatment:

Behavioral: HIVST-Chatbot (HIV self-testing services with counseling provided by a Chatbot)

HIVST-OIC (HIV self-testing services with counseling provided by administrators)

Active Comparator group

Description:

Promote and implement HIV self-testing (HIVST) services with real-time counselling provided by trained administrators)

Treatment:

Behavioral: HIVST-OIC (HIV self-testing services with counseling provided by administrators)