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Examining the Acceptability of mHealth Technology in HIV Prevention Among High-Risk Drug Users in Treatment

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Abstract

Despite promising trends of the efficacy of mobile health (mHealth) based strategies to a broad range of health conditions, very few if any studies have been done in terms of the examining the use of mHealth in HIV prevention efforts among people who use drugs in treatment. Thus, the goal of this study was to gain insight into the real-world acceptance of mHealth approaches among high-risk people who use drugs in treatment. A convenience sample of 400 HIV-negative drug users, who reported drug- and/or sex-related risk behaviors, were recruited from a methadone clinic in New Haven, Connecticut. Participants completed standardized assessments of drug- and sex-related risk behaviors, neurocognitive impairment (NCI), and measures of communication technology access and utilization, and mHealth acceptance. We found a high prevalence of current ownership and use of mobile technologies, such as cell phone (91.5%) including smartphone (63.5%). Participants used mobile technologies to communicate mostly through phone calls (M = 4.25, SD = 1.24), followed by text messages (M = 4.21, SD = 1.29). Participants expressed interest in using mHealth for medication reminders (72.3%), receive information about HIV (65.8%), and to assess drug-related (72.3%) and sex-related behaviors (64.8%). Furthermore, participants who were neurocognitively impaired were more likely to use cell phone without internet and show considerable interest in using mHealth as compared to those without NCI. The findings from this study provide empirical evidence that mHealth-based programs, specifically cell phone text messaging-based health programs, may be acceptable to this high-risk population.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for research (R01 DA025943 to FLA) and for career development (K24 DA017072 to FLA; K02 DA033139 to MMC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Medicine & Health Care, University of Connecticut Health Center, 263 Farmington Avenue, MC 6325, Farmington, CT, 06030-6325, USA

    Roman Shrestha

  2. Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Roman Shrestha, Tania B. Huedo-Medina, Frederick L. Altice, Archana Krishnan & Michael Copenhaver

  3. Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Tania B. Huedo-Medina & Michael Copenhaver

  4. Department of Internal Medicine, AIDS Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Frederick L. Altice

  5. Department of Communication, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY, USA

    Archana Krishnan

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  1. Roman Shrestha
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Correspondence to Roman Shrestha.

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Ethical Approval

The study protocol was approved by the Investigational Review Board (IRB) at the University of Connecticut and received board approval from APT Foundation Inc. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Shrestha, R., Huedo-Medina, T.B., Altice, F.L. et al. Examining the Acceptability of mHealth Technology in HIV Prevention Among High-Risk Drug Users in Treatment. AIDS Behav 21, 3100–3110 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-016-1637-x

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