IPROC iproc Iproceedings 2369-6893 JMIR Publications Toronto, Canada v8i1e39303 10.2196/39303 Abstract Abstract Mobile Technology Use and Acceptability of mHealth for HIV Prevention Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in Malaysia Pagoto Sherry Maviglia Francesca 1
Section of Infectious Diseases Department of Internal Medicine Yale School of Medicine 135 College St Suite 323 New Haven, CT, 06510 United States 1 2037372849 francesca.maviglia@yale.edu
Shrestha Roman MPH, PhD 2 Altice Frederick L MD 1 DiDomizio Libby 1 Khati Antoine 2 Mistler Colleen 2 Azwa Iskandar 3 Kamarulzaman Adeeba 3 Halim Mohd Akbar 3 Wickersham Jeffrey A PhD 1 Section of Infectious Diseases Department of Internal Medicine Yale School of Medicine New Haven, CT United States Department of Allied Health Sciences University of Connecticut Storrs, CT United States Centre of Excellence for Research in AIDS (CERiA) Faculty of Medicine University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Corresponding Author: Francesca Maviglia francesca.maviglia@yale.edu Jan-Dec 2022 29 6 2022 8 1 e39303 5 5 2022 15 6 2022 ©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. 2022

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 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.

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