NCT04714034

Real Risks of the Online World

Real Risks of the Online World: Association of Problematic Online Dating App Use with Mental and Sexual Health Outcomes in Sexual Minorities

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 229 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Zurich · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Development and validation of questionnaire/scale to assess problematic online dating app (ODA) use in a sub-cohort of the SwissPrEPared cohort study (validation sample: n=229). Longitudinal design to assess the association of problematic ODA use and sexual/mental health and substance use outcomes. No randomised trial, only 1 cohort which will be stratified according to severity/risk of problematic ODA use.

Detailed description

This project may fill an important gap of knowledge in a research area that has taken on major importance over the past few years, and has thus the potential to impact several major public health recommendations. First, considering the high penetrance of dating apps in the men who have sex with men (MSM) population (reaching 78.2% in a recent report), more than 62,000 MSM in Switzerland are estimated to use such applications. How many of them suffer from addiction or problmatic use remains unclear and our project will be the first to provide estimates of the prevalence of problematic ODA use in this particular population. Second, our project will help to clarify the impact of online dating app usage on health outcomes. By identifying drivers of the current HIV/(sexual transmitted infections (STI) epidemic in Switzerland, our project might thus provide critical information to shape future prevention measures aiming at further reducing HIV/STI incidence rates. Third, because sexual risk-taking increases with substance use and depression, it remains crucial to detect mental health outcomes early and provide adequate care to populations at high risk of HIV, or other STI, transmission. Fourth, our study might identify a new phenomenon related to high-risk sexual behaviour that may not be limited to the MSM group, but could also affect other, larger populations interacting and meeting through online communication channels. Considering that more than 41 million people are currently using dating apps in Europe, our findings might have a substantial impact on the general population. Finally, this project might provide the very first insights on the interplay between online dating, substance use, mental health and sexual risk taking. This new understanding could then help Switzerland create additional measures for preventing HIV transmission and reach the UNAIDS targets for HIV elimination by 2030.

Conditions

• Sexual Health

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	to develop and validate a scale measuring problematic online dating app (ODA) use in sexual minorities	Qualitative part: scale development and validation with testing in 3 different participant samples, i.e. preliminary testing (n=10), pilot testing (n=30-60), validation (n=300). Quantitative part: longitudinal part conducted in the validation sample of the qualitative study part (n=300) with the aim to evaluate the association of scores in the problematic ODA use scale with sexual health and mental health outcomes.

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-09-23
• Primary completion: 2022-12-31
• Completion: 2024-07-31
• First posted: 2021-01-19
• Last updated: 2025-01-31

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Switzerland