TY - JOUR
T1 - A crowdsourced physician finder prototype platform for men who have sex with men in China
T2 - Qualitative study of acceptability and feasibility
AU - Wu, Dan
AU - Huang, Wenting
AU - Zhao, Peipei
AU - Li, Chunyan
AU - Cao, Bolin
AU - Wang, Yifan
AU - Stoneking, Shelby
AU - Tang, Weiming
AU - Luo, Zhenzhou
AU - Wei, Chongyi
AU - Tucker, Joseph
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by Academy of Medical Sciences and the Newton Fund (NIF\R1\181020), the National Institutes of Health (NIAID 1R01AI114310-01), UNC-South China STD Research Training Center (FIC 1D43TW009532-01), UNC Center for AIDS Research (NIAID 5P30AI050410), the North Carolina Translational & Clinical Sciences Institute (1UL1TR001111), SMU Research Initiation Project (QD2017N030, C1034448), Youth Talent Grant of Guangdong Province (2017WQNCX129), Social Science Young Teacher Supporting Project of Shenzhen University (18QNFC46), Benjamin H. Kean Travel Fellowship in Tropical Medicine, and SESH (Social Entrepreneurship to Spur Health) Global. We would like to thank Xiyun Zhao, Xiunan Gui, Xinrun Ke, Shuzhen Chen, and Lu Chen from Shenzhen University for helping with the design and development of the prototype. We would also like to thank Guodong Mi and Dapeng Zhang from Blued for their help with the crowdsourcing contest.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 JMIR Publications Inc. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/10
Y1 - 2019/10
N2 - Background: Men who have sex with men (MSM), including both gay and bisexual men, have a high prevalence of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in China. However, healthcare seeking behaviors and engagement in clinical services among MSM are often suboptimal. Global evidence shows that embedding online HIV or sexual health services into gay social networking applications holds promise for facilitating higher rates of healthcare utilization among MSM. We developed a prototype of a gay-friendly health services platform, designed for integration within a popular gay social networking app (Blued) in China. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the acceptability of the platform and ask for user feedback through focus group interviews with young MSM in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, cities in Southern China. Methods: The prototype was developed through an open, national crowdsourcing contest. Open crowdsourcing contests solicit community input on a topic in order to identify potential improvements and implement creative solutions. The prototype included a local, gay-friendly, STI physician finder tool and online psychological consulting services. Semistructured focus group discussions were conducted with MSM to ask for their feedback on the platform, and a short survey was administered following discussions. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data in NVivo, and we developed a codebook based on the first interview. Double coding was conducted, and discrepancies were discussed with a third individual until consensus was reached. We then carried out descriptive analysis of the survey data. Results: A total of 34 participants attended four focus group discussions. The mean age was 27.3 years old (SD 4.6). A total of 32 (94%) participants obtained at least university education, and 29 (85%) men had seen a doctor at least once before. Our survey results showed that 24 (71%) participants had interest in using the online health services platform and 25 (74%) thought that the system was easy to use. Qualitative data also revealed that there was a high demand for gay-friendly healthcare services which could help with care seeking. Men felt that the platform could bridge gaps in the existing HIV or STI service delivery system, specifically by identifying local gay-friendly physicians and counselors, providing access to online physician consultation and psychological counseling services, creating space for peer support, and distributing pre-exposure prophylaxis and sexual health education. Conclusions: Crowdsourcing can help develop a community-centered online platform linking MSM to local gay-friendly HIV or STI services. Further research on developing social media-based platforms for MSM and evaluating the effectiveness of such platforms may be useful for improving sexual health outcomes.
AB - Background: Men who have sex with men (MSM), including both gay and bisexual men, have a high prevalence of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in China. However, healthcare seeking behaviors and engagement in clinical services among MSM are often suboptimal. Global evidence shows that embedding online HIV or sexual health services into gay social networking applications holds promise for facilitating higher rates of healthcare utilization among MSM. We developed a prototype of a gay-friendly health services platform, designed for integration within a popular gay social networking app (Blued) in China. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the acceptability of the platform and ask for user feedback through focus group interviews with young MSM in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, cities in Southern China. Methods: The prototype was developed through an open, national crowdsourcing contest. Open crowdsourcing contests solicit community input on a topic in order to identify potential improvements and implement creative solutions. The prototype included a local, gay-friendly, STI physician finder tool and online psychological consulting services. Semistructured focus group discussions were conducted with MSM to ask for their feedback on the platform, and a short survey was administered following discussions. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data in NVivo, and we developed a codebook based on the first interview. Double coding was conducted, and discrepancies were discussed with a third individual until consensus was reached. We then carried out descriptive analysis of the survey data. Results: A total of 34 participants attended four focus group discussions. The mean age was 27.3 years old (SD 4.6). A total of 32 (94%) participants obtained at least university education, and 29 (85%) men had seen a doctor at least once before. Our survey results showed that 24 (71%) participants had interest in using the online health services platform and 25 (74%) thought that the system was easy to use. Qualitative data also revealed that there was a high demand for gay-friendly healthcare services which could help with care seeking. Men felt that the platform could bridge gaps in the existing HIV or STI service delivery system, specifically by identifying local gay-friendly physicians and counselors, providing access to online physician consultation and psychological counseling services, creating space for peer support, and distributing pre-exposure prophylaxis and sexual health education. Conclusions: Crowdsourcing can help develop a community-centered online platform linking MSM to local gay-friendly HIV or STI services. Further research on developing social media-based platforms for MSM and evaluating the effectiveness of such platforms may be useful for improving sexual health outcomes.
KW - China
KW - Crowdsourcing
KW - Gay-friendly doctors
KW - Men who have sex with men
KW - Prototype evaluation
KW - Social media
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85082107299&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2196/13027
DO - 10.2196/13027
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85082107299
SN - 2369-2960
VL - 5
JO - JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
JF - JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
IS - 4
M1 - e13027
ER -