A randomized controlled trial of an mHealth intervention for gay and bisexual men’s mental, behavioral, and sexual health in a high-stigma, low-resource context: Project Comunică protocol

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 80% of new HIV diagnoses in 2014 in Europe occurred in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Romania has particularly high HIV incidence, AIDS prevalence, and AIDS-related deaths. HIV incidence today in Romania is largely attributed to sexual contact among gay and bisexual men (GBM). However, homophobic stigma in Romania keeps GBM out of reach of the scant available prevention services and serves as a risk factor for HIV. The Comunică intervention delivers motivational interviewing and cognitive-behavioral therapy skills across eight live text-based counseling sessions. Preliminary evidence suggests that Comunică possesses promise for reducing GBM’s co-occurring mental (e.g., depression), behavioral (e.g., heavy alcohol use), and sexual (e.g., HIV-transmission-risk behavior) health risks in Romania and perhaps other similar high-stigma national contexts. This paper describes a randomized controlled trial (RCT) designed to test the efficacy of Comunică. METHODS: To test Comunică’s efficacy, 305 GBM were randomized to receive Comunică or a content-matched education attention control condition. The control condition consists of eight time-matched educational modules that present information regarding GBM identity development, information about HIV transmission and prevention, the importance of HIV/STI testing and treatment, heavy alcohol use and its associations with HIV-transmission-risk behavior, sexual health communication, finding social support, and creating sexual health goals. Outcomes are measured pre-intervention (baseline), and at 4-, 8-, and 12-month follow-ups. The primary outcome is frequency of condomless anal sex acts with HIV-positive or unknown-status partners outside of the context of one’s own adherent PrEP use or primary partner’s adherent PrEP use or undetectable viral load in the past 30 days at each follow-up. Secondary outcomes include depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, heavy alcohol use, and HIV/STI testing; motivational and stigma-related mechanisms of intervention efficacy will also be examined. DISCUSSION: If found to be efficacious, Comunică presents a scalable platform to provide mental, behavioral, and sexual health support to GBM living in Romania and similar high-stigma, low-resource areas within the CEE region and beyond. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registered April 11, 2019 to ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03912753.