WeChat-based HIV E-report, A New Manner for HIV Serostatus Request and Disclosure Among Men Who Have Sex with Men: Prospective Subgroup Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trails (Preprint)

Abstract

HIV serostatus request and disclosure are associated with the reduction in HIV transmission among men who have sex with men (MSM). However, the reliability of common ways in HIV serostatus request and disclosure is unsatisfactory. Approaches validated the HIV serostatus are required.

The objective of this study was to identify the usage of the HIV E-report as authentic evidence of HIV serostatus among the MSM community in Guangzhou, China, and to explore its correlates of HIV serostatus requesting and disclosure receiving.

This study is the subgroup analysis of a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) containing 357 participants who were enrolled during the 1st year. Participants in this RCT were recruited from the WeChat-based HIV Testing Service mini-program developed by Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), China, and completed online questionnaires at baseline and the Month 3 follow-up, covering sociodemographic characteristics, HIV-related information, HIV serostatus requesting, HIV serostatus disclosure receiving, and HIV E-report usage. Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used for data analysis.

WeChat-based HIV E-report was available in Guangzhou when the RCT project started. 32.2% (115/357) of participants had their own HIV E-report(s) and 37.8% (135/357) of them had received others’ HIV E-reports at the Month 3 follow-up. For the manner of HIV serostatus requests, 13.1% (27/205) and 10.5% (16/153) started to use HIV E-reports to ask the HIV serostatus of regular and casual male sex partners, respectively. 27.3% (42/154) and 16.5% (18/109) of participants’ regular and casual male sex partners chose HIV E-reports to disclose HIV serostatus. Compared with MSM who did not have HIV E-report, those “I had had my own HIV E-report(s) but hadn’t sent to others” (ORm 2.71, 95% CI 1.19-6.86; P=.02) and “I had had my own HIV E-report(s) and had sent to others” (ORm 2.67, 95%CI 1.07-7.73; P=.048) were more likely to have HIV serostatus request behaviors to partners. Whereas no factor was associated with HIV serostatus disclosure received from partners.

The HIV E-report has been accepted by the MSM community and could be applied as a new optional way for HIV serostatus request and disclosure, which might be an effective innovative intervention in promoting infectious disease serostatus disclosure among the related high-risk population.

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03984136; https://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT03984136

RR2-/10.1186/s12879-021-06484-y