Carballo-Dieguez HT3

Rapid Home Test to Reduce Sexual Risk Behavior in MSM and Transgender Women

Principal Investigator: 

Alex Carballo-Dieguez, PhD 

Co-Investigator(s):

Ivan C. Balán, PhD

Curtis Dolezal, PhD

Irma Febo, MD

Funding Agency:

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Collaborating Institution: 

AIDS Clinical Trials Unit, University of Puerto Rico

Study Location:

New York, NY, USA

San Juan, PR

Description:

The primary aim of this study is to determine if high-risk MSM and TGW who have access to HT and learn how to use it with potential sexual partners engage in less sexual risk behavior than MSM and TGW who do not use HT. The secondary aim is to determine if ease of access to HT affects its use to reduce occasions of unprotected anal intercourse. 

We have recruited over half of a sample of 300 participants in New York and San Juan, who have been randomized in equal numbers to one of two groups: Group A receives an HT intervention orienting them to effective ways of using HT to screen partners and is supplied with HT kits to use over 3 months; Group B receives neither the intervention nor the kits. All participants are monitored for 3 months through brief daily text message reports.    
 

Presentations/   
Publications:   
 

• Iribarren SJ, Ghazzawi A, Sheinfil AZ, Frasca T, Brown W 3rd, Lopez-Rios J, Rael CT, Balán IC, Crespo R, Dolezal C, Giguere R, Carballo-Diéguez A. (2017). Mixed-Method Evaluation of Social Media-Based Tools and Traditional Strategies to Recruit High-Risk and Hard-to-Reach Populations into an HIV Prevention Intervention Study. AIDS & Behavior. [Epub ahead of print]
• Lopez-Rios J, Dolezal C, Giguere R, Lentz CL, Frasca TJ, Cruz C, Crespo R, Rael C, Brown W, Balan I, Febo I, Carballo-Dieguez, A. (2017). Correlation of risk perception and sexual risk behavior with sexual compulsivity, sexual sensation seeking, and justification for condomless sex among MSM. Poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. Atlanta, GA. November 9-12, 2017
• Balán I, Frasca T, Dolezal C, Brown W III, Rael CT, Cruz C, Guo T, Sia S, Febo I, Carballo-Diéguez A. (2017). Acceptability of a new smartphone-based HIV and syphilis test to screen sexual partners among high risk MSM and transgender women, HIV Research for Prevention Conference, Chicago IL, 17-21 Oct 2016