(P136) Crowdsourced partner services among men who have sex with men living with HIV: A pilot randomized controlled trial in China

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

16:00 – 18:00 CST

Primary Presenter(s)

Xumeng Yan, M.A. (she/her/hers)

Research assistant
University of North Carolina Project–China, United States

Co-author(s)

JT

Joseph D. Tucker

Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; Clinical Research Department, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK, United States
WM

William C. Miller

Division of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA, United States
HX

Huifang Xu

Department of HIV/AIDS Control and Prevention, Guangdong Center for Disease Control and Prevention, United States
YG

Yuzhou Gu

Department of HIV/AIDS Control and Prevention, Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, United States
WT

Weiming Tang

Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, United States

Background

Partners of people living with HIV have a higher HIV prevalence. To improve the uptake of HIV partner services (HIV PS) among men who have sex with men living with HIV (MLWH) in China, our team developed a crowdsourced intervention. This study assessed the acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary effectiveness of the intervention.

Methods

A pilot two-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted to compare the proportion of partner HIV testing of MLWH. Indexes in the control arm received conventional HIV PS using referral cards. Indexes in the intervention arm received a crowdsourced HIV PS intervention which included HIV self-testing kits for secondary distribution (HIVST-SD), digital education materials, and assisted PS via provider/contract referral. The primary outcomes were intervention feasibility (i.e., the frequency of indexes using crowdsourced intervention components), intervention acceptability (i.e., the evaluation of indexes on intervention components using Likert scales), and the preliminary impact of the intervention (i.e., the proportion of partners getting HIV testing within three months of index enrollment). Descriptive analysis was conducted, and generalized linear models were used to test whether the proportional differences were significant.
Results

A total of 121 newly diagnosed MLWH were enrolled between July 2021 and May 2022 in Guangzhou and Zhuhai, China, with 81 in the intervention arm and 40 in the control arm. The 3-month follow-up rates were 93% (75/81) and 83% (33/40), respectively. In the crowdsourced intervention arm, 23 indexes used HIVST-SD, and six used online provider-referral to notify nine sexual partners. Indexes visited the digital educational materials 2.3 times on average. The intervention components also demonstrated acceptability, with HIVST-SD rated 4.4 out of 5 and the digital educational materials rated 4.1 out of 5. The proportion of partners getting HIV testing among all identified partners was 38% (65/171) in the intervention arm, compared to 27% (24/89) in the control arm. The difference was not statistically significant (11%, 95% CI: -2%～24%).

Conclusion

The crowdsourced HIV PS intervention components were acceptable and feasible among Chinese MLWH and may improve the proportion of partners receiving HIV testing. Further implementation science research is needed to expand HIV PS among key populations in low and middle-income countries.