Formative Research for Mobile App Promoting Sexual Health for Young Black Men who Have Sex with Men (psh4ybmsm)

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Mobile App Promoting Sexual Health for Young Black Men who Have Sex with Men psh ybmsm Men who have sex with men and particularly Black men who have sex with men BMSM have been disproportionately affected by HIV AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic but in recent years the impact of HIV among young Black men who have sex with men YBMSM has escalated rapidly More new HIV infections occur among YBMSM aged than any other age and racial group of MSM with an increase of from Young MSM account for of all new HIV infections among African American MSM The few interventions focused solely on YBMSM target ages leaving a dearth of interventions for teen BMSM further research has found that sex education for YMSM is not readily available from friends family or schools with many YMSM relying on older partners the Internet and pornography for education This project will address these gaps and fill an important product niche for community based organizations health departments clinics and schools serving YBMSM by testing the feasibility of creating a sex positive smartphone app based HIV STI intervention developed for use by YBMSM ages The concept for the intervention was guided by formative work in which an in person version of the activities Promoting Sexual Health was developed and pilot tested confirming the utility of the approach psh ybmsm employs a theory based approach to address essential knowledge perceptions of risk peer norms attitudes and skill with two primary goals To reduce HIV STI psh ybmsm emphasizes not having sex partner reduction avoidance of concurrent partners condoms and HIV STI tests and To improve sexual health and relationships it helps participants to become clearer about what they do donandapos t want to do sexually to communicate their choices and to learn ways to enhance sexual experience while reducing HIV STI risk The project offers a number of innovations including the creation of the first sex positive multimedia interactive smartphone app delivered HIV STI prevention program specifically designed for YBMSM aged that addresses risk reduction and sexual response a group difficult to reach via in person intervention the inclusion of content designed to enhance sexual experience an approach called for by the target audience a review of the pros cons of PREP and PEP content tailoring based on user activity and inputs for example based on gender identity reported number of partners and frequency of sexual activity the user is guided toward content specifically tailored for their needs and context sensitive delivery of booster content such as monitoring SMS texts Instagram and Twitter feeds for keywords i e hookup HIV test if detected the app responds with context appropriate content in the moment Phase I will test feasibility by finalizing intervention content designing the app using formative research and developing and usability testing two intervention activities and one context sensitive function Phase II will complete development and conduct a multi site randomized controlled trial to assess effectiveness

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE Black men who have sex with men BMSM have been disproportionately affected by HIV AIDS epidemic Nearly half of the million individuals living
with HIV in the United States are African American even though African Americans represent only of the U S population Among Black men living with HIV nearly half are estimated to be MSM In Black MSM represented of new HIV infections among Black men and more new HIV infections occurred among young Black MSM aged than any other age and racial group of MSM with an increase of from Young Black MSM between the ages of and are more than twice as likely to be infected with HIV than young MSM of any other ethnic group Yet there is a lack of school based sexual education for this group of young people few HIV interventions designed specifically to meet the needs of young BMSM and almost none that use a sex positive approach This project will develop a smartphone app based multimedia interactive HIV STI and sexual health intervention developed for use by YBMSM ages that delivers the intervention as a series of interactive activities tailored to the user and employs a theory based approach to address essential knowledge perceptions of risk peer norms attitudes and skill with two primary goals To reduce HIV STIs it emphasizes not having sex partner reduction avoidance of concurrent partners condoms and HIV STI tests and To improve sexual health it helps participants to become clearer about what they do donandapos t want to do sexually to communicate their choices and to learn ways to enhance sexual experience without increasing HIV STI risk When completed the resulting product will provide a cost effective HIV STI intervention that can be implemented to individuals across diverse settings with fidelity while increasing uptake and effective delivery by appealing to the target audience on their mobile device and ultimately reducing new HIV STI infections among young Black MSM