Feasibility of Recruiting Peer Educators to Promote HIV Testing Using Facebook Among Men Who have Sex with Men in Peru.
Luis A Menacho, Jerome T Galea, Sean D Young
Author Information
Luis A Menacho: Epidemiology, STD and HIV Unit, School of Public Health and Administration, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru, luis.menacho@upch.pe.
A peer leader-based intervention using social media can be an effective means to encourage Peruvian gay men to test for HIV. The objective was to explore the feasibility of recruiting and training leaders to deliver a peer intervention via Facebook to promote HIV testing. Training consisted of three sessions focused on HIV epidemiology, consequences of stigma associated with HIV, and ways to use Facebook. We performed pre- and post-training evaluations to assess HIV knowledge and comfort using Facebook. We trained 34 peer leaders. At baseline, the majority of peer leaders were already qualified and knowledgeable about HIV prevention and use of social media. We found a significant increase in proportion of peer leaders who were comfortable using social media to discuss about sexual partners and about STIs. It is feasible to recruit peer leaders who are qualified to conduct a social media based HIV prevention intervention in Peru.
