1. Social Media–Based Secondary Distribution of Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Syphilis Self-testing Among Chinese Men Who Have Sex with Men.
- Author
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Wu, Dan, Zhou, Yi, Yang, Nancy, Huang, Shanzi, He, Xi, Tucker, Joseph, Li, Xiaofeng, Smith, Kumi M, Ritchwood, Tiarney, Jiang, Xiaohui, Liu, Xuan, Wang, Yehua, Huang, Wenting, Ong, Jason, Fu, Hongyun, Bao, Huanyu, Pan, Stephen, Dai, Wencan, and Tang, Weiming
- Subjects
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DIAGNOSIS of syphilis , *DIAGNOSIS of HIV infections , *HOME diagnostic tests , *SOCIAL media , *MEDICAL screening , *FISHER exact test , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *CHI-squared test , *MEN who have sex with men , *DATA analysis software , *PATIENT self-monitoring - Abstract
Background Social media and secondary distribution (distributing self-testing kits by indexes through their networks) both show strong promise to improve human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) self-testing uptake. We assessed an implementation program in Zhuhai, China, which focused on the secondary distribution of HIV/syphilis self-test kits among men who have sex with men (MSM) via social media. Methods Men aged ≥16 years, born biologically male, and ever had sex with another man were recruited as indexes. Banner ads on a social media platform invited the participants to apply for up to 5 self-test kits every 3 months. Index men paid a deposit of US$15/kit refundable upon submitting a photograph of a completed test result via an online submission system. They were informed that they could distribute the kits to others (referred to as "alters"). Results A total of 371 unique index men applied for 1150 kits (mean age, 28.7 [standard deviation, 6.9] years), of which 1141 test results were returned (99%). Among them, 1099 were valid test results; 810 (74%) were from 331 unique index men, and 289 tests (26%) were from 281 unique alters. Compared to index men, a higher proportion of alters were naive HIV testers (40% vs 21%; P <.001). The total HIV self-test reactivity rate was 3%, with alters having a significantly higher rate than indexes (5% vs 2%; P =.008). A total of 21 people (3%) had a reactive syphilis test result. Conclusions Integrating social media with the secondary distribution of self-test kits may hold promise to increase HIV/syphilis testing coverage and case identification among MSM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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