# MyPEEPS Mobile LITE:  Limited Interaction Efficacy Trial of MyPEEPS Mobile to Reduce HIV Incidence and Better Understand the Epidemiology of HIV among YMSM

> **NIH NIH UG3** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2022 · $1,800,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
There is a critical need to better understand the epidemiology of HIV acquisition in the United States (US),
particularly among cisgender gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM), one of the key
populations essential to target for End the HIV Epidemic (EHE) initiatives. In direct response to RFA-AI-21-018,
this study will use innovative technology to recruit and retain a large cohort of high-risk, HIV-negative young
men who have sex with men (YMSM) focusing on racial/ethnic minority YMSM and high HIV prevalence
geographic areas (known as “hot spots”). Furthermore, we will leverage this cohort to conduct a large-scale
clinical trial while maintaining the standard of care control arm as a longitudinal observational cohort for
epidemiologic analyses. Our study team is uniquely positioned and has all the relevant expertise to conduct
this study having successfully recruited and retained more than 12,000 YMSM in a full range of research
studies across the HIV continuum (e.g., epidemiology, intervention development, mHealth, PrEP, clinical trials,
innovative geospatial methods). We have had specific success conducting prevention research with YMSM
(17-25 years), including racially and ethnically diverse YMSM, our target demographic group. Further, we have
previously leveraged advanced social media advertising techniques and used innovative geospatial analytics
to target/study “communities within communities”, reaching hard-to-reach YMSM from diverse geographic
areas (e.g., rural zip codes, U.S. tribal lands, etc.) and young ages (e.g., YMSM 13-18 years of age). We will
harness innovative technology to recruit, during 36-months of enrollment, and then retain a large cohort (N =
5,000) of 17-25 year old YMSM, the majority being Black and Latino, who are at high-risk of HIV transmission
(e.g., history of condomless anal sex) and follow them every 6 months thereafter. We will conduct an entirely
virtual, digital clinical trial (Specific Aim #1) testing whether MyPEEPS Mobile (an evidence-based mHealth HIV
prevention intervention) reduces HIV incidence among HIV-negative YMSM (17-25 years old) looking at the
influence of theory-driven social, ecological, and geospatial factors on intervention uptake and efficacy
inclusive of measures that align with traditional models of behavior change such as the Information Motivation
Behavior Model. A social-ecological theoretical framework will also guide the analysis of the longitudinal
observational cohort study (Specific Aim #2) of the 2,500 control arm participants to assess individual, network,
geospatial, and public policy correlates of HIV risk and health seeking behaviors (e.g., PrEP uptake) comparing
individuals who become HIV-positive to those who do not. Intervention Implications. The findings from this
research will have important real-world implications for research and practice. For example, understanding how
individual, network, geospatial, and public policy factors correla...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10462265
- **Project number:** 1UG3AI169658-01
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Dustin T Duncan
- **Activity code:** UG3 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $1,800,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10462265

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10462265, MyPEEPS Mobile LITE:  Limited Interaction Efficacy Trial of MyPEEPS Mobile to Reduce HIV Incidence and Better Understand the Epidemiology of HIV among YMSM (1UG3AI169658-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10462265. Licensed CC0.

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