CTBH affiliate Ian David Aronson, PhD has received a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to develop a mobile video-based intervention to increase HIV testing among patients in a high volume urban emergency department (ED) who initially decline HIV tests offered by hospital staff. The three-year study will randomize patients into four groups, which will each see a different onscreen presentation about the importance of HIV testing. Pre-post intervention data collection instruments will measure the effectiveness of each presentation in terms of HIV test rates, change in self-efficacy to test for HIV and deal with the results, and changes in HIV-related knowledge.

Because people with undiagnosed HIV will not receive treatment and may unknowingly infect others, the CDC recommends routine HIV testing in healthcare settings, including EDs. Unfortunately, those most at risk frequently decline HIV tests offered by triage staff, and in the New York ED where data will be collected for the current study, far more patients decline tests compared to those who accept.

This new study builds upon findings from a 2012 NIDA-funded trial, in which approximately one third of ED patients who initially declined HIV testing agreed to an HIV test after completing a similar computer-based intervention. The current study also builds upon findings from Dr. Aronson’s CTBH-funded pilot to integrate a qualitative protocol into the 2012 trial to understand why patients did or did not test after watching a video, how the intervention could be improved, and why they initially declined a test upon arrival in the ED. Based on the combined findings of both studies, the current project will develop a new set of videos, a new set of measures, and a new technology-based intervention. Resulting data may provide valuable new information about optimal strategies to leverage mobile technology to promote HIV testing behavior.