This paper is in the following e-collection/theme issue:

UConn CHASM 6th Annual Conference 2022: "Telehealth and Remote Care in a Post-Pandemic World" (54)

Published on in Vol 8, No 1 (2022): Jan-Dec

Preprints (earlier versions) of this paper are available at https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/39303, first published .
Mobile Technology Use and Acceptability of mHealth for HIV Prevention Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in Malaysia

Mobile Technology Use and Acceptability of mHealth for HIV Prevention Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in Malaysia

Mobile Technology Use and Acceptability of mHealth for HIV Prevention Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in Malaysia

Authors of this article:

Francesca Maviglia1 ;   Roman Shrestha2 ;   Frederick L Altice1 ;   Libby DiDomizio1 ;   Antoine Khati2 ;   Colleen Mistler2 ;   Iskandar Azwa3 ;   Adeeba Kamarulzaman3 ;   Mohd Akbar Halim3 ;   Jeffrey A Wickersham1
Article Authors Cited by Tweetations Metrics

    Abstract

    1Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States

    2Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States

    3Centre of Excellence for Research in AIDS (CERiA), Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    *these authors contributed equally

    Corresponding Author:

    Francesca Maviglia

    Section of Infectious Diseases

    Department of Internal Medicine

    Yale School of Medicine

    135 College St

    Suite 323

    New Haven, CT, 06510

    United States

    Phone: 1 2037372849

    Email: francesca.maviglia@yale.edu


    Background: The growth in mobile technology access, utilization, and services holds great promise for facilitating HIV prevention efforts in Malaysia. Despite these promising trends, there is a dearth of evidence on the use of mobile health (mHealth) platforms to address the HIV prevention needs of Malaysian men who have sex with men (MSM).

    Objective: The goal of this study was to gain insights into (1) the access and utilization of communication technology (eg, landline phone, internet, and cell phone), (2) the acceptability of mHealth-based interventions for HIV prevention services, and (3) preferences regarding the format and frequency of mHealth interventions among Malaysian MSM.

    Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 376 Malaysian MSM was conducted between July 2018 and March 2020. Participants were recruited using respondent-driven sampling in the Greater Kuala Lumpur region, Malaysia. Participants completed a self-administered assessment of participant demographics, HIV risk-related behaviors, access to and frequency of the use of communication technology, and the acceptability of mHealth for HIV prevention.

    Results: Almost all participants owned or had access to a smartphone with internet access (97.9%) and accessed the internet daily (99.2%), mainly on a smartphone (88.8%). Using a 5-point scale, participants on average used smartphones primarily for social networking (mean 4.5, SD 0.8), followed by sending or receiving emails (mean 4.0, SD 1.0) and searching for health-related information (mean 3.5, SD 0.9). Further, the results indicated the high acceptance of mHealth for HIV prevention, that is, receiving HIV prevention information (91.8%), receiving reminders to take medications (89.4%), tracking sexual activity (81.4%), tracking drug use (74.7%), and monitoring drug cravings (74.5%), with the most preferred method being the smartphone app for all activities.

    Conclusions: The findings from this study provide support for developing and deploying mHealth strategies for HIV prevention in MSM by using a smartphone app, which are crucial for a key population with suboptimal engagement in HIV prevention and treatment.

    Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

    iproc 2022;8(1):e39303

    doi:10.2196/39303

    Keywords

    HIV; mHealth; men who have sex with men; mobile phone; Malaysia 

    Edited by S Pagoto; This is a non–peer-reviewed article. submitted 05.05.22; accepted 15.06.22; published 29.06.22

    Copyright

    ©Francesca Maviglia, Roman Shrestha, Frederick L Altice, Libby DiDomizio, Antoine Khati, Colleen Mistler, Iskandar Azwa, Adeeba Kamarulzaman, Mohd Akbar Halim, Jeffrey A Wickersham. Originally published in Iproceedings (https://www.iproc.org), 29.06.2022.

    This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in Iproceedings, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.iproc.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.