{"id":923,"date":"2013-10-04T14:08:06","date_gmt":"2013-10-04T14:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/sti\/?p=923"},"modified":"2013-10-03T16:08:34","modified_gmt":"2013-10-03T16:08:34","slug":"peer-group-education-through-social-media-turning-the-tide-of-the-msm-hiv-epidemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/sti\/2013\/10\/04\/peer-group-education-through-social-media-turning-the-tide-of-the-msm-hiv-epidemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Peer group education through social media: turning the tide of the MSM HIV epidemic?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The link between social networking technology and risk-taking sexual behaviour appears to be a complex one.\u00a0 On the one hand, there is a strong likelihood that social networking increases MSM at risk by involving them in sexual networks.\u00a0 For example, according to the European MSM Internet Survey, 58% of MSM reporting a non-steady partner over the last twelve months also report having met that partner on the Internet.\u00a0 On the other hand, there is also evidence of risk-reducing behaviours like increased communication before sexual encounters may become more pronounced (<a href=\"http:\/\/sti.bmj.com\/content\/89\/Suppl_1\/A23.2.abstract?sid=7bac80fc-1933-4ce4-af1d-e3ca4bbe6141\">sti.bmj\/STI&amp;AidsConferenceVienna\/2013\/marcus&amp;schmidt<\/a>). \u00a0So how about using the technologies, that spread MSM HIV transmission, to prevent that transmission? (<a href=\"http:\/\/sti.bmj.com\/content\/89\/Suppl_1\/A23.1.full.pdf+html\">sti.bmj\/STI&amp;AIDSConferenceVienna2013\/Young<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>This intriguing possibility has recently been explored in a small randomized control trial (Young &amp; Coates) that uses facebook to deliver the peer education (<a href=\"http:\/\/annals.org\/article.aspx?articleid=1733276\">Young&amp;Coates<\/a>).\u00a0 The use of peer education is one of a number of interventions that has been considered as a means to influence MSM sexual behaviour, and has been trialled in a handful of studies with varied results (<a href=\"http:\/\/sti.bmj.com\/content\/87\/4\/272.abstract?sid=a4cc3bf6-3638-4678-a09f-53bbf1955049\">sti.bmj\/Lorenc&amp;Lindsay<\/a>). Other studies have evaluated the effectiveness of educational tools made available to the MSM community on the internet &#8211; such as the ISEAN Hivos program in SE Asia (<a href=\"http:\/\/sti.bmj.com\/content\/89\/Suppl_1\/A351.1.abstract?sid=8f25ac5b-921f-477d-bfc3-5d067c039524\">sti.bmj\/Nasution<\/a>) and a recent program in Peru (<a href=\"http:\/\/sti.bmj.com\/content\/89\/Suppl_1\/A351.1.abstract?sid=8f25ac5b-921f-477d-bfc3-5d067c039524\">sti.bmj\/Blas&amp;Kurth<\/a>). The novelty of Y&amp;C\u2019s study is to bring the two kinds of intervention together, using the social networking to deliver the peer education.\u00a0 The rationale for this is the apparent popularity of social networking among the ethnic populations, and LGBT populations, that are precisely those most at risk from HIV.<\/p>\n<p>The participants were 112 MSM, 85% Afro-American or Latino, recruited from the Internet and social websites: the peer educators, 16 Afro-American or Latino MSM, recruited from community organizations, screened online, then given three 3-hour training sessions at UCLA.\u00a0 28 participants and four peer educators were randomly assigned to each one of four closed groups on facebook &#8211; two intervention and two control.\u00a0 The intervention group peer educators were encouraged to initiate and maintain engagement of their participants on HIV prevention: those in the control groups, were to do so on general health issues.<\/p>\n<p>The principal quantifiable outcome of the 12 week trial was the request, return and follow-up of home HIV testing kits which participants were told they could obtain at the end of each four week section of the 12 week trial.\u00a0 In the intervention arm 25\/57 kits (41%) were requested, 9\/25 kits (36%) returned, and 8 followed up for test results &#8211; as against 11\/55 (20%) requested, 2\/11 returned (18%) and 0 followed up for test results in the control arm. The peer educators were paid a total of $120 US each for participation over the whole twelve-week period.<\/p>\n<p>While these are promising findings, and warrant further research,\u00a0 this kind of intervention, like other peer education interventions reviewed by Lorenc &amp; Lindsay are certainly \u201cresource intensive and challenging to implement\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/sti.bmj.com\/content\/87\/4\/272.abstract?sid=a4cc3bf6-3638-4678-a09f-53bbf1955049\">sti.bmj\/Lorenc&amp;Lindsay<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The link between social networking technology and risk-taking sexual behaviour appears to be a complex one.\u00a0 On the one hand, there is a strong likelihood that social networking increases MSM at risk by involving them in sexual networks.\u00a0 For example, according to the European MSM Internet Survey, 58% of MSM reporting a non-steady partner over [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/sti\/2013\/10\/04\/peer-group-education-through-social-media-turning-the-tide-of-the-msm-hiv-epidemic\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1642],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hiv-testing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Peer group education through social media: turning the tide of the MSM HIV epidemic? - Sexually Transmitted Infections<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/sti\/2013\/10\/04\/peer-group-education-through-social-media-turning-the-tide-of-the-msm-hiv-epidemic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Peer group education through social media: turning the tide of the MSM HIV epidemic? - Sexually Transmitted Infections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The link between social networking technology and risk-taking sexual behaviour appears to be a complex one.\u00a0 On the one hand, there is a strong likelihood that social networking increases MSM at risk by involving them in sexual networks.\u00a0 For example, according to the European MSM Internet Survey, 58% of MSM reporting a non-steady partner over [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/sti\/2013\/10\/04\/peer-group-education-through-social-media-turning-the-tide-of-the-msm-hiv-epidemic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sexually Transmitted Infections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-04T14:08:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/sti\\\/2013\\\/10\\\/04\\\/peer-group-education-through-social-media-turning-the-tide-of-the-msm-hiv-epidemic\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/sti\\\/2013\\\/10\\\/04\\\/peer-group-education-through-social-media-turning-the-tide-of-the-msm-hiv-epidemic\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Peer group education through social media: turning the tide of the MSM HIV epidemic?\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-04T14:08:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/sti\\\/2013\\\/10\\\/04\\\/peer-group-education-through-social-media-turning-the-tide-of-the-msm-hiv-epidemic\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":504,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/sti\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"HIV testing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/sti\\\/2013\\\/10\\\/04\\\/peer-group-education-through-social-media-turning-the-tide-of-the-msm-hiv-epidemic\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/sti\\\/2013\\\/10\\\/04\\\/peer-group-education-through-social-media-turning-the-tide-of-the-msm-hiv-epidemic\\\/\",\"name\":\"Peer group education through social media: turning the tide of the MSM HIV epidemic? 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