Peer Group Focused eHealth Strategies to Promote HIV Prevention, Testing, and Care Engagement
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EHEALTH AND HIV (J SIMONI AND B GUTHRIE, SECTION EDITORS)
Peer Group Focused eHealth Strategies to Promote HIV Prevention, Testing, and Care Engagement Keshet Ronen 1
&
Eli Grant 2 & Charles Copley 3 & Tara Batista 2,4 & Brandon L. Guthrie 1
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Purpose of Review Electronic communication platforms are increasingly used to support all steps of the HIV care cascade (an approach defined as eHealth). Most studies have employed individual-level approaches in which participants are connected with information, reminders, or a healthcare worker. Recent growth in use of social media platforms, which create digital communities, has created an opportunity to leverage virtual peer-to-peer connection to improve HIV prevention and care. In this article, we describe the current landscape of peer group eHealth interventions in the HIV field, based on a review of published literature, an online survey of unpublished ongoing work, and discussions with practitioners in the field in an in-person workshop. Recent Findings We identified 45 published articles and 12 ongoing projects meeting our inclusion criteria. Most reports were formative or observational; only three randomized evaluations of two interventions were reported. Studies indicated that use of peer group eHealth interventions is acceptable and has unique potential to influence health behaviors, but participants reported privacy concerns. Summary Evaluations of health outcomes of peer group eHealth interventions show promising data, but more rigorous evaluations are needed. Development of group eHealth interventions presents unique technological, practical, and ethical challenges. Intervention design must consider privacy and data sovereignty concerns, and respond to rapid changes in platform use. Innovative development of open-source tools with high privacy standards is needed. Keywords HIV . Peer . Digital . eHealth . mHealth . Social media
Introduction eHealth refers to interventions that employ digital communication technology to improve health outcomes. Use of eHealth has grown explosively over the last 15 years. In the HIV field, substantial literature has accumulated demonstrating the ability of eHealth interventions to improve outcomes throughout the HIV care continuum, from prevention and testing, to linkage to care, retention in care, and antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence [1–4]. The vast majority of published studies have This article is part of the Topical Collection on eHealth and HIV * Keshet Ronen [email protected] 1
University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
2
Praekelt.org, Cape Town, South Africa
3
Cedar.com, New York, NY, USA
4
Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
focused on individual-level interventions that provide the patient with information, reminders, or connection with a healthcare worker. The dominance of individual-level interventions is a logical extension of one-to-one delivery of HIV medical care and the prioritization of privacy and confidentiality. This
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