Shrestha, Roman and Lim, Sin How and Altice, Frederick L. and Copenhaver, Michael and Wickersham, Jeffrey A. and Saifi, Rumana Akhter and Ab Halim, Mohd Akbar and Naning, Herlianna and Kamarulzaman, Adeeba (2020) Use of Smartphone to Seek Sexual Health Information Online Among Malaysian Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM): Implications for mHealth Intervention to Increase HIV Testing and Reduce HIV Risks. Journal of Community Health, 45 (1). pp. 10-19. ISSN 0094-5145, DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-019-00713-x.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
In settings where stigma and discrimination toward men who have sex with men (MSM) are high or illegal, like in Malaysia, innovative methods to anonymously reach them are urgently needed. The near ubiquitous availability of mobile technology, including smartphones, has the potential to open new frontiers (such as mHealth) to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The extent to which MSM use mHealth tools for HIV and STI prevention in the Malaysia context, however, is unknown. A cross-sectional online survey in 622 Malaysian MSM was conducted between July and November 2017. Participants were recruited via advertisements on mobile apps frequently used by MSM. In addition to demographic, smartphone access and utilization, and other information were assessed using logistic regression to determine factors associated with the use of a smartphone to search for online sexual health information. Nearly all (99.2%) participants owned a smartphone, with 63% reported having used one to seek sexual health information, including HIV/STIs. Overall, 96% used smartphones to find sexual partners, with high levels of HIV risk behavior reported. Independent correlates of smartphone use to seek online sexual health information included older age (aOR 0.943, p = 0.005), higher education (aOR 2.14, p = 027), recent (past year) HIV testing (aOR 3.91, p = 0.026), and seeking sexual partners using geosocial networking apps (aOR 5.58, p = 0.006). These findings suggest high smartphone use by high-risk MSM to seek sexual health information and suggests that mHealth strategies may be an effective strategy to engage MSM in HIV prevention activities. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Funders: | National Institute on Drug Abuse for career development (K24 DA017072 to FLA; K02 DA033139 to MMC; K01 DA038529 to JW) |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | HIV; Malaysia; Men who have sex with men; mHealth; Smartphone |
| Subjects: | R Medicine |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Medicine |
| Depositing User: | Ms. Juhaida Abd Rahim |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Jun 2020 07:24 |
| Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2020 07:24 |
| URI: | http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/24949 |
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