Facebook Group Raises Rate of HIV Testing

A social networking group intervention was effective at increasing home-based HIV testing among men who have sex with men, researchers found.

Compared with participants who received general health information through a Facebook group, more men who received information about HIV through a Facebook group requested home-based HIV testing (44% versus 20%, a difference of 24 percentage points, 95% CI 8-41 for difference), according to Sean Young, PhD, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, and colleagues.

Of those who requested home-based HIV tests, 36% of those in the HIV Facebook group versus 18% of those in the control group mailed their sample for testing, they wrote online in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The authors noted that social networking may be a cost-effective approach to HIV prevention through a peer-leader model, particularly among minority populations and men who have sex with men. In 2011, the CDC noted that annual testing for HIV among men who have sex with men may not be frequent enough.

Cole Petrochko
MedPage Today
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