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. 2022 Jul-Aug;16(4):15579883221115591.
doi: 10.1177/15579883221115591.

Study Evaluating Self-Collected Specimen Return for HIV, Bacterial STI, and Potential Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Adherence Testing Among Sexual Minority Men in the United States

Akshay Sharma  1   2 , Monica Gandhi  3 , Gregory Sallabank  1 , Leland Merrill  1 , Rob Stephenson  1   4
Affiliations

Study Evaluating Self-Collected Specimen Return for HIV, Bacterial STI, and Potential Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Adherence Testing Among Sexual Minority Men in the United States

Akshay Sharma et al. Am J Mens Health. 2022 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

Web-based HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention studies are increasingly requesting gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) to return self-collected specimens for laboratory processing. Some studies have solicited self-collected extragenital swabs for gonorrhea and chlamydia testing, but to date, none have solicited self-collected hair samples for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) adherence testing. Project Caboodle! offered 100 racially/ethnically diverse GBMSM aged 18 to 34 years residing across the United States a choice to self-collect at home and return by mail any of the following: a finger-stick blood sample (for HIV testing), a pharyngeal swab, a rectal swab and a urine specimen (for gonorrhea and chlamydia testing), and a hair sample (to visually assess its adequacy for PrEP drug level testing). Despite not incentivizing specimen return, 51% mailed back at least one type of specimen within 6 weeks (1% returned three specimens, 11% returned four specimens and 39% returned all five specimens). The majority of returned specimens were adequate for laboratory processing. Significantly more participants without a college education (p = .0003) and those who were working full-time or part-time (p = .0070) did not return any specimens. In addition, lower levels of HIV-related knowledge (p = .0390), STI-related knowledge (p = .0162), concern about contracting HIV (p = .0484), and concern about contracting STIs (p = .0108) were observed among participants who did not return any specimens. Self-collection of specimens holds promise as a remote monitoring strategy that could supplement testing in clinical settings, but a better understanding of why some GBMSM may choose to fully, partially, or not engage in this approach is warranted.

Keywords: HIV; pre-exposure prophylaxis; self-testing; sexual and gender minorities; sexually transmitted diseases.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Specimen Self-Collection Box Used in Project Caboodle!, United States, March 2019 to April 2020.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Recruitment of 100 Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex With Men in Project Caboodle!, United States, March 2019 to April 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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