Using Mobile Technology and Incentives With Men Who Have Sex With Men and Transgender Women for HIV Prevention

This project called Mobile Technology and Incentives (MOTIVES) aims to increase engagement with HIV prevention information and improve testing frequency among Latino/a men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TGW). Its primary goal is to develop and test the feasibility and acceptability of an HIV prevention intervention that uses text messages in combination with prizes to improve HIV prevention information retention and HIV testing frequency. The project will be conducted in collaboration with Bienestar Human Services, Inc. (Bienestar) in Los Angeles County. Phase 1 consists of formative research (focus groups n=9) with MSM (n=52) and TGW (n=39) to complement the previously collected pilot data (2014-2015) to finalize the planned intervention. In Phase 2, the intervention will be piloted among 5 individuals, implemented, and tested in a small, randomized controlled trial (RCT) among 200 Latino MSM and TGW from Bienestar's HIV testing sites. Interested individuals will be screened for eligibility upon testing HIV-negative (those testing positive will be linked to HIV services as required by Bienestar's standard of care). Eligible participants will be randomized into either the intervention or control group that will both receive study information weekly and will be invited to get tested for HIV every three months. Participants in the intervention group will be able to accumulate rewards points for correctly answering weekly quizzes regarding the HIV prevention information; these reward incentives aim to encourage retention in the study and improve HIV prevention knowledge engagement and recollection. Every three months those in the intervention group can win a prize based on testing HIV-negative at least once during that time period. The chance of winning will increase based on the number of reward points a participant accumulates by correctly answering questions on the weekly quizzes. The primary outcome measures will include HIV-preventive knowledge