Barcelona 2013
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| Abstract #380 - Information Technologies | ||||
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Session: 17.7: Information Technologies (Parallel) on Monday @ 14.30-16.00 in Mirador Chaired by Ferran Pujol, Rich Wolitski Authors: Presenting Author: Dr Udi Davidovich - Amsterdam Public Health Service, Netherlands |
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| Additional Authors: | ||||
| Aim: Issues: Men who have just been diagnosed with HIV have specific needs concerning their adjustment to the new realities in their lives. One important aspect of adjustment relates to managing their sexual health. Recently diagnosed MSM are in the midst of dealing with the new and very diverse implications that their HIV status has for their sexuality, to name but a few: issues and implications of infectiousness, ART treatment and safe sex, issues of self-worth, perceptions of attractiveness, romantic attachment to others, future (sexual) relationships, HIV status disclosure to others, losing the self-protective value of safe sex, STD?s in relation to HIV, and much more. Many of these questions are usually not yet well formulated in the minds of men recently diagnosed with HIV. Interacting with health professionals to obtain answers to these questions is often being perceived as a sudden and undesired medicalization of their lives that, up until then, were typically free of intensive involvement with the medical world. | ||||
| Method / Issue: Project: We developed a website that addresses many of the issues MSM deal with soon after diagnosis (up to 1 year after), with a strong emphasis on managing sexual health. The content of the interventions modules was based on results from a formative qualitative study and is theoretically grounded in the Information Motivation Behavioural skills model. The choice to use the internet as a delivery tool was not coincidental. The internet provides a low threshold and a safe environment to deal with the sensitive issues raised by the intervention. This "safety of distance" can facilitate help-seeking behaviour and disclosure as shown in previous research. In fragile emotional times following HIV diagnosis, users can benefit from the fact that they can follow the intervention at their own paste, in the comfort of their home, and with minimal disclosure to strangers in the form of medical professionals. Further, the internet makes it easier to offer the intervention modules on a tailored basis and provides features such as ?intervention-memory?, which allows users to pick up in the intervention where they left off last visit. The internet makes it easy to use video & audio materials and facilitates an operationalized network approach where sexual and social partners of the participants can be approached through the website as well. The website was launched in March 2013 and is currently being evaluated for usability and acceptability and for effect at 6 months and 12 months follow-up. | ||||
| Results / Comments: Lessons learned: In the presentation will demonstrate how the formative research and lessons from previously developed online interventions were translated into working interactive modules for the website. Examples will be provided for our tailored and interactive online modules approach, starting from interactive text through to live chat functions with HIV counsellors, filmed coaches and testimonials, sexual network approach modules, and closing with a demonstration of a design feature specifically developed for the intervention: ?voluntary tailoring? ? a tailoring process that is less intrusive to the users than classical tailoring. | ||||
| Discussion: | ||||
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