Attitudes About the Use of Geosocial Networking Applications for HIV/STD Partner Notification: A Qualitative Study
Open accessAbstract
Meeting sex partners through geosocial networking (GSN) apps is common among men who have sex with men (MSM). MSM may choose not to exchange contact information with partners met through GSN apps, limiting their own and health departments' ability to notify partners of HIV/STD exposure through standard notification methods. Using online focus groups (four groups; N = 28), we explored the perspectives of U.S. MSM regarding offer of partner notification features through GSN apps. Most participants were comfortable with HIV/STD partner notification delivered via GSN apps, either by partner services staff using a health department profile or through an in-app anonymous messaging system. While most participants expressed a responsibility to notify partners on their own, app-based partner notification methods may be preferred for casual or hard-to-reach partners. However, participants indicated that health departments will need to build trust with MSM app users to ensure acceptable and effective app-based delivery of partner notification.
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Other health workers preferred provider-assisted referral because they could give details about treatment to the partner and provide help or support to the patient, including to mitigate violent responses from sexual partners.
“Other health workers preferred provider-assisted referral as they could give details about the treatment to the partner and provide help/support to the patient, including to mitigate violent responses from sexual partners (123, 131, 132).”
From Updated recommendations for the treatment of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, and Treponema pallidum (syphilis) and new recommendations on syphilis testing and partner services (2024) · cites this paper as [123]
The Results (page unavailable) say some participants saw patient safety as a reason to use health-department staff for partner notification; others valued the health-related answers and resources providers could offer a notified partner. The study reports the views of men who have sex with men, not health workers’ preferences. It does not say staff preferred this approach to explain treatment or to help patients mitigate violent responses. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAnother common issue was the difficulty of retrieving and/or having the correct contact information for all sexual partners, in addition to notifications being ignored.
“Another common issue was the difficulty of retrieving and/or having the correct contact information for all sexual partners, in addition to notifications being ignored (123, 124, 127, 132, 137, 138, 140, 144, 149, 151, 152, 155, 158, 167-170).”
From Updated recommendations for the treatment of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, and Treponema pallidum (syphilis) and new recommendations on syphilis testing and partner services (2024) · cites this paper as [123]
The Results (page unavailable) report that some participants lacked partners’ contact information and that blocking, deleted profiles, or changed usernames could make partners hard to find. The paper does not report notifications being ignored; it also says participants generally found partners easy to find again on apps unless those barriers arose. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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- Authors
- Contesse, M. G., Fredericksen, R. J., Wohlfeiler, D., Hecht, J., Kachur, R., Strona, F. V., & Katz, D. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Building Healthy Online Communities, San Francisco, California.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US)
- Venue
- AIDS Education and Prevention
- Publisher
- Guilford Publications
- Published
- 2019-06
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 273-285
- ISSN
- 0899-9546 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6821391
- OpenAlex
- W2947105845
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 2.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- AIDS Education and Prevention (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (CC999999)
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (P30AI027757, P30AI050409)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Keywords
- geosocial networking apps, HIV partner notification, sexually transmitted infections, men who have sex with men, anonymous messaging, HIV exposure, dating apps
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Male, Sexual Behavior, Sexual Partners, United States, HIV Infections, Contact Tracing, Homosexuality, Male, Internet, Qualitative Research, Social Networking, Mobile Applications
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