Digital outreach efforts ‘can bolster HIV prevention programmes’

New US research has highlighted the potentially useful role an eHealth approach can play in improving the effectiveness of HIV prevention programmes.

A team from Columbia University School of Nursing conducted a systematic literature review to determine the effectiveness of digital outreach efforts for HIV prevention among men who have sex with men.

It was found that media such as text messages, interactive games, chat rooms and social networks can be effective ways of reaching at-risk younger men, with interventions of this kind associated with reductions in risky sexual behaviors and increases in HIV testing among gay and bisexual males.

This suggests the privacy and immediacy of digital communication may be appealing to men who are not comfortable disclosing their sexual orientation or HIV status in a face-to-face encounter.

Lead study author Dr Rebecca Schnall, an assistant professor at Columbia Nursing, said: "What we now have is a road map to follow for larger, longer trials that may definitely confirm the effectiveness of eHealth in fighting the spread of HIV."

At the end of 2012, there were an estimated 98,400 people in the UK living with HIV, with the vast majority being infected via sexual intercourse.