NCT07165496

Text Messaging to Promote HIV Testing in Gay Men

Cell Phones for Bringing Gay Men From Internet to the Health Center

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 400 (actual)
• Sponsor: Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia · Academic / Other
• Sex: Male
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The rate of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) remains high among Peruvian men who have sex with men (MSM), and new prevention programs should be developed to reach and provide sexual health services to more MSM. The Internet is a feasible medium both for recruiting participants and for implementing projects with MSM in Lima, Peru. Likewise, in Peru, mobile phones are promising tools for carrying out HIV-related interventions due to the high rate of mobile phone penetration. The Internet is a way to reach MSM who do not attend traditional health centers due to the stigma associated with being homosexual. Since mobile phones can be used to promote health, the investigators proposed to design, implement, and evaluate an intervention using text messages to promote HIV testing among Peruvian MSM recruited online. To achieve this objective, the investigators conducted a randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy of a text message-based intervention to promote HIV testing among MSM in Lima recruited via the Internet.

Conditions

• HIV Testing

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Text message-based intervention	Participants received weekly text messages to promote health and HIV testing and were followed and supported by trained healthcare counselors through two-way communication over a 12-week period. They were able to schedule a free HIV testing appointment at any time up to six months after enrollment.

Timeline

• Start date: 2015-04-01
• Primary completion: 2015-12-31
• Completion: 2015-12-31
• First posted: 2025-09-10
• Last updated: 2025-11-24

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Peru