Effectiveness of Incentivized Peer Referral to Increase Enrollment in a Community-Based Chlamydia Screening and Treatment Study Among Young Black Men

OBJECTIVES: Young Black men are under-represented in sexual health services and research, a condition likely magnified during COVID-19 shutdowns due to disruption of STI screening and treatment services. We examined the effect of incentivized peer referral (IPR) increasing peer referral among young Black men in a community-based chlamydia screening program. METHODS: Young Black men in New Orleans, LA, age 15–26 years enrolled in a chlamydia screening program between 3/2018 and 5/2021 were included. Enrollees were provided with recruitment materials to distribute to peers. Starting July 28, 2020, enrollees were also offered a $5 incentive for each peer enrolled. Enrollment was compared before and after the incentivize peer referral program (IPR) was implemented using multiple time series analysis (MTSA). RESULTS: The percentage of men referred by a peer was higher during IPR compared to pre-IPR (45.7% vs. 19.7%, p < 0.001). After the COVID-19 shutdown was lifted, there were 2.007 more recruitments per week (p = 0.044, 95% CI (0.0515, 3.964)) for IPR, compared to pre-IPR. Overall, there was a trending increase in recruitments in the IPR era relative to the pre-IPR era (0.0174 recruitments/week, p = 0.285, 95% CI (− 0.0146, 0.0493)) with less recruitment decay during IPR compared to pre-IPR. CONCLUSIONS: IPR may be an effective means of engaging young Black men in community-based STI research and prevention programs, particularly when clinic access is limited. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRY SITE AND NUMBER: Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT03098329.