# Integrating a combination HIV prevention intervention into a widely-used geosocial app for Chinese MSM

> **NIH NIH R01** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $652,516

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
A number of HIV prevention interventions are known to be effective: HIV testing and linkage to care as
appropriate, condom use, and HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Unfortunately, achieving sufficient use of
these prevention services has been challenging. In China, men who have sex with men (MSM) are the only
risk group with increasing HIV case detection, representing 26% of new cases diagnosed in 2014. One way to
obtain increased prevention intervention use would be to help individuals understand when they should be
using certain prevention services, and to make accessing services less burdensome. The proposed research
will involve conducting a literature review and developing mathematical models to explore different scenarios of
providing a combination HIV prevention service intervention for MSM in China. Using information from this
exercise, we will develop and pilot test a combination HIV intervention built into a smartphone app. The
intervention will include home care services such as home HIV self-testing and home ordering of prevention
products such as condoms. If the intervention proves to be feasible and acceptable, the pilot test will facilitate
design of a larger study of intervention efficacy. The intervention will be built into an existing, widely-accessed
geosocial networking app used by MSM. By building the intervention into a platform already used by millions of
individuals, we anticipate that, in the event that the intervention is demonstrated to be efficacious, scale-up of
the intervention will be readily achievable. The proposed research seeks to develop mathematical models and
an intervention that would reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS, meeting an overarching research priority
identified in the Strategic Plan of the NIH Office of AIDS Research.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9852974
- **Project number:** 5R01AI143875-02
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Aaron Julius Siegler
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $652,516
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-01-23 → 2022-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9852974

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9852974, Integrating a combination HIV prevention intervention into a widely-used geosocial app for Chinese MSM (5R01AI143875-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9852974. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*