Seeing Is Believing? Unique Capabilities of Internet-Only Studies as a Tool for Implementation Research on HIV Prevention for Men Who Have Sex With Men: A Review of Studies and Methodological Considerations.

BACKGROUND

In 2014, Grov et al published a comprehensive review cataloguing both men who have sex with men's (MSM's) sexual behavior transitions in online environments from the 1990s through 2013, as well as researchers' efforts in tandem to use the internet to engage MSM into research, treatment, and prevention.

METHODS

In this article, we discuss historical events and research having occurred in the half decade since the Grov et al publication.

RESULTS

Notable transitions include MSM's expanded use of geosocial networking apps, as well as other forms of social media accessed primarily through mobile devices, as well as the addition of biomedical prevention strategies (eg, pre-exposure prophylaxis and undetectable = untransmittable) to the proverbial HIV prevention toolkit. In tandem, researchers have rapidly expanded their employment of internet-mediated methods for the recruitment and engagement of key populations for HIV research, treatment, and prevention. In this article, we discuss methodological considerations for using the internet to conduct HIV prevention research with MSM: (1) sources of recruitment (eg, geosocial apps, Facebook, crowdsourced online panels); (2) design (eg, cross sectional, longitudinal, diaries); (3) incentives (including disincentivizing fraudulent participants and/or spam bots); (4) confidentiality; and (5) representativeness.

CONCLUSION

We conclude by discussing future directions in HIV prevention research in light of forthcoming technologies such as fifth generation (5G) mobile networks, combined use of self-collected biological data alongside self-report, and the utility of metadata and metaresearch to document, evaluate, and inform best practices.