NCT06969677

Personalized Normative Feedback to Increase HIV Testing

Personalized Normative Feedback to Increase HIV Testing Among Adults in Rural Uganda

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 1,300 (actual)
• Sponsor: Massachusetts General Hospital · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Randomized trial to measure the effect of personalized normative feedback about local HIV testing rates and local rates of HIV-related stigma on self-reported HIV testing intentions and perceptions about others' HIV testing intentions.

Detailed description

HIV testing is a vital step in identifying and treating HIV. Research in rural Uganda reveals underestimation of community HIV testing rates and overestimation of HIV-related stigma among adults. At the same time, perceived norms (i.e., estimated rates regardless of their accuracy) are associated with personal HIV testing behavior and personal HIV-related attitudes. This study employs a randomized controlled trial to evaluate how providing accurate information about local descriptive (i.e., behavioral) norms and local injunctive (i.e., attitudinal) norms affect HIV testing intentions. Participants are randomly assigned to one of four treatment arms: (1) they are reminded of what they thought community testing rates were in their village and then receive accurate information about high community testing rates, (2) they are reminded of what they thought local stigma rates were in their village and then receive accurate information about positive community perceptions of persons with HIV, (3) they are reminded of what they thought community testing rates and local stigma rates were in their village and then receive both types of accurate normative information, or (4) they are reminded of what they thought community testing rates were in their village and receive no further information (control group). The study assesses how providing this type of personalized normative feedback within cohort-based data collection affects personal reports about getting tested for HIV in the next 12 months and how it affects perceptions about how many men and women in the same village will get tested for HIV in the next 12 months. It is hypothesized that providing accurate information about local community testing rates and/or attitudes toward persons with HIV will increase reported personal willingness to get tested (primary outcome) and improve the accuracy of estimated community testing rates in the future (secondary outcome).

Conditions

• HIV Testing
• HIV Stigma

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Survey questionnaire	Each version of the questionnaire has similar questions about personal HIV testing intentions and perceived norms about other men and women's HIV testing intentions. The content of the prompt presented prior to the questions varies based on treatment arm. This version does not provide any normative feedback information.
OTHER	Survey questionnaire	Each version of the questionnaire has similar questions about personal HIV testing intentions and perceived norms about other men and women's HIV testing intentions. The content of the prompt presented prior to the questions varies based on treatment arm. This version provides personalized normative feedback with descriptive norms information about local HIV testing rates.
OTHER	Survey questionnaire	Each version of the questionnaire has similar questions about personal HIV testing intentions and perceived norms about other men and women's HIV testing intentions. The content of the prompt presented prior to the questions varies based on treatment arm. This version provides personalized normative feedback with injunctive norms information about local HIV stigma rates.
OTHER	Survey questionnaire	Each version of the questionnaire has similar questions about personal HIV testing intentions and perceived norms about other men and women's HIV testing intentions. The content of the prompt presented prior to the questions varies based on treatment arm. This version provides personalized normative feedback with descriptive and injunctive norms information about both local HIV testing rates and local HIV stigma rates.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-11-02
• Primary completion: 2025-01-06
• Completion: 2025-01-06
• First posted: 2025-05-14
• Last updated: 2025-05-14

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Uganda