Technology use to facilitate health care among young adult transgender women living with HIV

ABSTRACT

Little is known about how young adult transgender women living with HIV use digital technologies to facilitate their health care. This study examined the use of digital technologies to search for health information and support HIV care among young adult transgender women living with HIV (N = 130) in Los Angeles County, California. About half used the Internet “all the time” to search for transgender-specific resources (TSR; 53.8%) and for sexual health information (SHI; 51.5%). Less than half (39.2%) received digital HIV care reminders and, of those taking ART medication (n = 63), 36.5% received digital medication reminders. Internet information search was associated with Hispanic/Latina ethnicity (TSR: OR = 0.23, 95% CI [0.09, 0.58]; SHI: OR = 0.29, 95% CI [0.12, 0.73]) and higher (≥ $500) past-month income (TSR: OR = 2.67, 95% CI [1.13, 6.34]; SHI: OR = 2.67, 95% CI [1.14, 6.26]); receiving digital medication reminders with post-secondary educational attainment (OR = 5.70, 95% CI [1.04, 31.19]) and higher income (OR = 6.73, 95% CI [1.52, 29.67]). Receiving analog, but not digital, HIV care reminders was associated with engagement in HIV care (OR = 2.37, 95% CI [1.13, 5.00]) and ART uptake (OR = 2.18, 95% CI [1.06, 4.48]. Digital technology use was common for health-related searches but not for supporting HIV care.

KEYWORDS:

• Transgender
• technology
• health
• HIV

Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number H97HA28889 in the last annual award amount of $300,000 awarded to Friends Research Institute (PI: C. Reback). No percentage of this project was financed with non-governmental sources. This information or content and conclusions are those of the authors and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government. Dr. Reback acknowledges additional support from the National Institute of Mental Health (P30 MH58107). The authors would like to thank Jesse Fletcher, Ph.D., for his statistical consultation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Health Resources and Services Administration: [Grant Number H97HA28889]; National Institute of Mental Health: [Grant Number P30 MH58107].