Abstract
Social media technologies have become increasingly useful tools for research-based interventions. However, participants and social media users have expressed ethical concerns with these studies, such as risks and benefits of participation, as well as privacy, confidentiality, and informed consent issues. This study was designed to follow up with and assess experiences and perceptions of ethics-related issues among a sample of 211 men who have sex with men who participated in the Harnessing Online Peer Education (HOPE) Peru study, a randomized controlled HIV prevention intervention conducted in Peru. We found that after adjusting for age, highest educational attainment, race, sexual orientation, and prior HIV research experience, participants in the intervention group were more likely than those in the control group to have safe sex (p = 0.0051) and get tested for HIV regularly (p = 0.0051). As a result of their participation, those in the intervention group benefited more positively than participants in the control group in improving HIV care (p = 0.0077) and learning where to receive sexual health services (p = 0.0021). Participants in the intervention group expressed higher levels of comfort than those in the control group in joining and seeing other people in the Facebook group (p = 0.039), seeing other people’s posts (p = 0.038) and having other group members talk to them online (p = 0.040). We discuss the implications of these results as they relate to social media-based HIV research.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank researchers at the Center for Digital Behavior (CDB) at the University of California, Los Angles (UCLA) for their input on this study. We wish to acknowledge Jason Chiu for his data analysis and help developing the manuscript while he was on staff.
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The Institutional Review Boards at UCLA and Epicentro approved the study protocol for the original HOPE study and the current study. Participants received information about the study and completed an informed consent online. The study adheres to the current recommendations on using social media in HIV research.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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This study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (Young: K01 MH090884) and by the Fordham University HIV and Drug Abuse Prevention Research Ethics Training (National Institute on Drug Abuse R25 DA031608-01).
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Garett, R., Menacho, L. & Young, S.D. Ethical Issues in Using Social Media to Deliver an HIV Prevention Intervention: Results from the HOPE Peru Study. Prev Sci 18, 225–232 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-016-0739-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-016-0739-z