Text Messaging to Promote HIV Testing in Gay Men

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

Status: Completed

Conditions: HIV Testing

Treatments: Behavioral: Text message-based intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07165496

S6 0541-01-10 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

62406

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Enrollment: 400 patients

Sex: Male

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

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

Trial design

Primary purpose: Diagnostic

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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400 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention arm

Experimental group

Description:

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.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Text message-based intervention

Control arm

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants were able to set up an appointment for HIV testing at no charge.