{"doi":"10.2196/34574","title":"Behavioral Efficacy of a Sexual Health Mobile App for Men Who Have Sex With Men: Randomized Controlled Trial of Mobile Messaging for Men","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) face the highest burden of HIV in the United States, and there is a paucity of efficacious mobile health (mHealth) HIV prevention and care interventions tailored specifically for GBMSM. We tested a mobile app combining prevention messages and access to core prevention services for GBMSM. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to measure the efficacy of the Mobile Messaging for Men (M-cubed) app and related services to increase HIV prevention and care behaviors in diverse US GBMSM. METHODS: We conducted a randomized open-label study with a waitlist control group among GBMSM in 3 groups (low-risk HIV-negative group, high-risk HIV-negative group, and living-with-HIV [LWH] group) recruited online and in venues in Atlanta, Detroit, and New York City. Participants were randomly assigned to receive access to the app immediately or at 9 months after randomization. The app provided prevention messages in 6 domains of sexual health and offered ordering of at-home HIV and sexually transmitted infection test kits, receiving preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) evaluations and navigation, and service locators. Serostatus- and risk-specific prevention outcomes were evaluated at baseline, at the end of the intervention period, and at 3, 6, and 9 months after the intervention period. RESULTS: In total, 1226 GBMSM were enrolled and randomized; of these 611 (49.84%) were assigned to the intervention group and 608 (99.51%) were analyzed, while 615 (50.16%) were assigned to the control group and 612 (99.51%) were analyzed. For high-risk GBMSM, allocation to the intervention arm was associated with higher odds of HIV testing during the intervention period (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.02, 95% CI 1.11-3.66) and with higher odds of using PrEP in the 3 months after the intervention period (aOR 2.41, 95% CI 1.00-5.76, P<.05). No changes in HIV prevention or care were associated with allocation to the intervention arm for the low-risk HIV-negative and LWH groups. CONCLUSIONS: Access to the M-cubed app was associated with increased HIV testing and PrEP use among high-risk HIV-negative GBMSM in 3 US cities. The app could be made available through funded HIV prevention providers; additional efforts are needed to understand optimal strategies to implement the app outside of the research setting. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03666247; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03666247. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/16439.","journal":"Journal of Medical Internet Research","year":2022,"id":237594,"datarank":1.2944833779051144,"base_score":4.0943445622221,"endowment":4.0943445622221,"self_citation_contribution":0.6141516843333151,"citation_network_contribution":0.6803316935717993,"self_endowment_contribution":0.6141516843333151,"citer_contribution":0.6803316935717993,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":59,"citer_count":28,"citers_with_citation_signal":21,"citers_with_endowment":21,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9507,"is_data_producer":true,"deposit_databanks":{"ClinicalTrials.gov":["NCT03666247"]},"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":383565,"name":"Rob Stephenson","orcid":"0000-0002-9239-2640","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":394772,"name":"Sabina Hirshfield","orcid":"0000-0002-2649-469X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":286382,"name":"C. Christina Mehta","orcid":"0000-0001-6854-7983","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":324241,"name":"Ryan Zahn","orcid":"0000-0001-6001-2220","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":382514,"name":"José A. Bauermeister","orcid":"0000-0002-9276-2306","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":413427,"name":"Keith J. Horvath","orcid":"0000-0001-7569-2839","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":860319,"name":"Mary Ann Chiasson","orcid":"0000-0002-4906-0667","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":453238,"name":"Deborah Gelaude","orcid":"0000-0001-5360-5837","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":658102,"name":"Shelby Mullin","orcid":"0000-0002-0494-7109","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":860320,"name":"Martin J. Downing","orcid":"0000-0003-0283-399X","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":860321,"name":"Evelyn Olansky","orcid":"0000-0001-5086-6038","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":305151,"name":"Sarah Wiatrek","orcid":"0000-0003-0533-8257","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":860322,"name":"Erin Rogers","orcid":"0000-0003-3189-1558","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":387911,"name":"Eli S. Rosenberg","orcid":"0000-0002-1695-8075","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":274945,"name":"Aaron J. Siegler","orcid":"0000-0001-5553-7540","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":860323,"name":"Gordon Mansergh","orcid":"0000-0002-3202-9081","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":254907,"name":"Patrick S. Sullivan","orcid":"0000-0002-7728-0587","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":41,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:22:21.693802Z","pmid":"35025755","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}