Shrestha, Roman and Maviglia, Francesca and Altice, Frederick L. and DiDomizio, Elizabeth and Khati, Antoine and Mistler, Colleen and Azwa, Iskandar and Kamarulzaman, Adeeba and Ab Halim, Mohd Akbar and Wickersham, Jeffrey A. (2022) Mobile health technology use and the acceptability of an mHealth platform for HIV prevention among men who have sex with men in Malaysia: Cross-sectional respondent-driven sampling survey. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24 (7). ISSN 1438-8871, DOI https://doi.org/10.2196/36917.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
The growth in mobile technology access, utilization, and services holds great promise in facilitating HIV prevention efforts through mobile health (mHealth) interventions in Malaysia. Despite these promising trends, there is a dearth of evidence on the use of mHealth platforms that addresses HIV prevention among Malaysian men who have sex with men. Objective: The goal of this study was to gain insight into (1) access and utilization of communication technology (eg, landline phone, internet, mobile phone), (2) acceptability of mHealth-based interventions for HIV prevention services, and (3) preferences regarding the format and frequency of mHealth interventions among Malaysian men who have sex with men. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey with Malaysian men who have sex with men between July 2018 and March 2020. Participants were recruited using respondent-driven sampling in the Greater Kuala Lumpur region of Malaysia. We collected information on demographic characteristics, HIV risk-related behaviors, access to and the frequency of use of communication technology, and acceptability of using mHealth for HIV prevention using a self-administered questionnaire with a 5-point scale (1, never; 2, rarely; 3, sometimes; 4, often; 5, all the time). Results: A total of 376 men participated in the survey. Almost all respondents owned or had access to a smartphone with internet access (368/376, 97.9%) and accessed the internet daily (373/376, 99.2%), mainly on a smartphone (334/376, 88.8%). Participants on average used smartphones primarily for social networking (mean 4.5, SD 0.8), followed by sending or receiving emails (mean 4.0, SD 1.0), and searching for health-related information (mean 3.5, SD 0.9). There was high acceptance of the use of mHealth for HIV prevention (mean 4.1, SD 1.5), including for receiving HIV prevention information (345/376, 91.8%), receiving medication reminders (336/376, 89.4%), screening and monitoring sexual activity (306/376, 81.4%) or illicit drug use (281/376, 74.7%), and monitoring drug cravings (280/376, 74.5%). Participants overwhelmingly preferred a smartphone app over other modalities (eg, text, phone call, email) for engaging in mHealth HIV prevention tools. Preference for app notifications ranged from 186/336 (53.9%), for receiving HIV prevention information, to 212/336 (69.3%), for screening and monitoring sexual activity. Acceptance of mHealth was higher for those who were university graduates (P=.003), living in a relationship with a partner (P=.04), engaged in sexualized drug use (P=.01), and engaged in receptive anal sex (P=.006). Conclusions: Findings from this study provide support for developing and deploying mHealth strategies for HIV prevention using a smartphone app in men who have sex with men-a key population with suboptimal engagement in HIV prevention and treatment.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Funders: | United States Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA, NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), K01 DA051346, United States Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA, NIH Fogarty International Center (FIC) |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | HIV; mHealth; Men who have sex with men; Mobile phone; Malaysia; Mobile health; HIV prevention; Sexual health; public health; digital health; communication technology; health technology; technology accessibility; smartphone app; HIV treatment |
| Subjects: | R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine R Medicine > RC Internal medicine |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Medicine > Medicine Department |
| Depositing User: | Ms. Juhaida Abd Rahim |
| Date Deposited: | 27 Oct 2023 02:25 |
| Last Modified: | 27 Oct 2023 02:25 |
| URI: | http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/40434 |
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