BACKGROUND
Black and Hispanic men who have sex with men in the United States continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV and AIDS. Uptake of and knowledge about biobehavioral HIV prevention approaches, such as treatment as prevention and preexposure prophylaxis, are especially low in these populations. eHealth campaigns and social media messaging about treatment as prevention and preexposure prophylaxis may help to fill this gap in knowledge and lead to increased uptake of such strategies; however, no evidence exists of the effects of these targeted forms of communication on treatment as prevention and preexposure prophylaxis uptake in these populations.
OBJECTIVE
We describe the protocol for a 3-part study aiming to develop and evaluate an eHealth intervention with information about treatment as prevention and preexposure prophylaxis for HIV-positive and HIV-negative black and Hispanic men who have sex with men.
METHODS
Phases 1 and 2 will involve focus groups and cognitive interviews with members of the target populations, which we will use to create a culturally tailored, interactive website and applicable social media messaging for these men. Phase 3 will be a small randomized controlled trial of the eHealth intervention, in which participants will receive guided social media messages plus the newly developed website (active arm) or the website alone (control arm), with assessments at baseline and 6 months.
RESULTS
Participant recruitment began in August 2017 and will end in August 2020.
CONCLUSIONS
Public health interventions are greatly needed to increase knowledge about and uptake of biobehavioral HIV prevention strategies such as treatment as prevention and preexposure prophylaxis among black and Hispanic men who have sex with men. eHealth communication campaigns offer a strategy for engaging these populations in health communication about biobehavioral HIV prevention.
CLINICALTRIAL
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03404531; https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03404531 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/70myofp0R).
REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER
RR1-10.2196/11047
Results of a social media campaign to prevent indoor tanning by teens: A randomized controlled trial
