Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Mar 28:5:1536236.
doi: 10.3389/frhs.2025.1536236. eCollection 2025.

Co-creating strategies to promote uptake of HIV self-testing among young adults in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina: a protocol for a pilot implementation study

Ucheoma Nwaozuru  1 , Lindsay Miller  2 , Laura H Gunn  2   3   4 , Sebastian Marin-Cespedes  2 , Margaret Hanff  2 , Patrick Robinson  5 , Michael Dulin  5 , Meghana Muralidhar  6 , Prashant Jha  7 , Goodness C Mirikwe  8 , Donaldson F Conserve  9 , Chelsea Gulden  10 , Bernard A Davis  11 , Kristie Foley  1 , Joseph Tucker  12   13 , Meagan Zarwell  2   14
Affiliations

Co-creating strategies to promote uptake of HIV self-testing among young adults in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina: a protocol for a pilot implementation study

Ucheoma Nwaozuru et al. Front Health Serv. .

Abstract

Background: HIV testing is the gateway to entering HIV care and prevention services. However, HIV testing rates remain low among young adults (18-29 years old) in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (NC), an ending the HIV epidemic (EHE) priority jurisdiction. We aim to utilize community-engaged and participatory approaches to co-create implementation strategies to promote the reach and uptake of HIV self-testing (HIVST) among young adults in the region. This study protocol outlines the phases of the project and the proposed outcomes.

Methods: The Community-engaged Approaches to Expand HIV Self-Testing among Young Adults in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (CATEST) project will be conducted in three phases, guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR), and Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) frameworks. The formative phase of the study, guided by CFIR, will focus on understanding the barriers, facilitators, and opportunities for implementing HIVST among young adults in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. The second phase, guided by CBPR, will utilize participatory approaches such as crowdsourcing open calls and charrettes to co-create implementation strategies for HIVST. Then, the final pilot implementation phase, guided by CFIR and RE-AIM, will use mixed methods to evaluate the success of the co-created HIVST implementation strategies using a pre-post design. Participants in the study will complete a baseline survey and a follow-up survey immediately following intervention completion. In addition, a purposive sample of participants and representatives at the participating community organization will complete qualitative exit interviews within 1 month of intervention completion.

Discussion: This study protocol outlines the co-creation of implementation strategies, tests their feasibility, and explores preliminary effectiveness in promoting HIVST uptake among young adults in Mecklenburg County, NC. The study will yield insights on the feasibility of leveraging the capabilities of community and youth innovation to promote young adults-centered implementation strategies to advance the reach and adoption of HIVST among young adults.

Registration: Registered on Open Science Forum-DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/2BZWV.

Keywords: HIV self-testing; North Carolina; community-based participatory approaches; crowdsourcing; young adults.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

CG was employed by RAIN Inc. BD was employed by RAO Community Health. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual model for the CATEST study. The model draws from the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) (24), Community-Based Participatory Research Program (CBPR) (17, 18), and Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) (25, 26) frameworks.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overview of phase 2 of the study-crowdsourcing open call and charrettes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2019. Atlanta: US Department of Health and Human Services; (2019). Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/sti-statistics/media/pdfs/2024/07/std-surveillance-2... (Accessed October 20, 2024).
    1. Harris NS, Johnson AS, Huang Y-LA, Kern D, Fulton P, Smith DK, et al. Vital signs: status of human immunodeficiency virus testing, viral suppression, and HIV preexposure prophylaxis—United States, 2013–2018. Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. (2019) 68(48):1117. 10.15585/mmwr.mm6848e1 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. UNAIDS: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Understanding Fast-track: Accelerating Action to End the AIDS Epidemic by 2030. Geneva: UNAIDS; (2015).
    1. CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV surveillance 2019. Atlanta: US Department of Health and Human Services; (2019).
    1. Garcia DR, Fletcher J, Goldsamt L, Navarra A-MD. Integrative review of methods from youth risk behavior survey secondary data analyses examining HIV syndemic factors among adolescent gay and bisexual men. Nurs Res. (2023) 72(2):141–9. 10.1097/NNR.0000000000000632 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources