Preliminary impact of the weCare social media intervention to support health for young men who have sex with men and transgender women with HIV
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Amanda Elizabeth Tanner, Associate Professor (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Abstract: Young racial/ethnic minority men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women with HIV often have poor health outcomes. They also utilize a wide array of social media. Accordingly, we developed and implemented weCare, a social media intervention utilizing Facebook, texting, and GPS-based mobile social and sexual networking applications to improve HIV-related care engagement and health outcomes. We compared viral load suppression and clinic appointment attendance among 91 participants during the 12-month period before and after weCare implementation. McNemar's chi-square test analyses were conducted comparing the pre- and postintervention difference using paired data. Since February 2016, intervention staff and 91 intervention participants (79.1% African American and 13.2% Latino, mean age?=?25) exchanged 13,830 messages during 3,758 conversations (average: 41.3 conversations per participant) across a variety of topics, including appointment reminders, medication adherence, problem solving, and reducing barriers. There were significant reductions in missed HIV care appointments (68.0% vs. 53.3%, p?=?0.04) and increases in viral load suppression (61.3% vs. 88.8%, p?
Preliminary impact of the weCare social media intervention to support health for young men who have sex with men and transgender women with HIV
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Created on 2/18/2020
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Additional Information
- Publication
- AIDS Patient Care and STDs, 32(11); 450-458
- Language: English
- Date: 2018
- Keywords
- HIV care, young MSM, transgender, social media, intervention