Correlates of requesting home HIV self-testing kits on online social networks among African-American and Latino men who have sex with men

ABSTRACT

High levels of HIV stigma are one of the main difficulties in engaging African-American and Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) in HIV testing. The availability of home HIV test and the possibility of self-testing in private may improve uptake and counteract stigma. This paper sought to determine the correlates of requesting home HIV test kits among a sample of MSM social media users. The odds of participants requesting a test kit were significantly associated with using social networks to seek sexual partners (aOR: 2.47, 95% CI: 1.07–6.06) and thinking it is easier to use social networks for seeking sexual partners (1.87, 1.2–3.12), uncertain HIV status (4.29, 1.37–14.4), and having sex under the influence of alcohol (2.46, 1.06–5.77). Participants who had not been tested for more than 6 months were more likely to request a test kit than those who were tested in the past 6 months (2.53, 1.02–6.37). Participants who frequently talked to others about having sex with men online were less likely to request a test kit (0.73, 0.56–0.92). By reaching people over social media and offering them access to test kits, we were able to reach at-risk individuals who were uncertain about their HIV status and had not been regularly tested. The findings of the study will help to inform future HIV testing interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV self-testing kits
• online social networks
• Internet
• African-American and Latino MSM
• MSM
• social media

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the support and guidance of Dr Thomas Coates and Greg Szekeres. Finally, we would like to acknowledge and thank Facebook for providing the tools for our program to take place.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) [grant number K01 MH090884-01A1] (Sean D. Young).