WASHINGTON – The findings presented at IDWeek demonstrated Grindr's potential to identify men who have sex with men, or MSM, who are at high risk of contracting HIV, suggesting a possible new route for testing and prevention, researchers said.
The study found that MSM who use Grindr engage in riskier sexual behavior and have more partners compared to those who do not use the dating app. However, Grindr users were more likely to use pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV or be open to using it.
"The idea of using novel strategies to better understand behaviors in the community and being able to reach people about the potentials for reducing infection is important," Eric S. Daar , MD, chief of the division of HIV medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and IDWeek chair for the Association of HIV Medicine, said during a press conference highlighting the findings.
"This particular presentation... is really one of several first looks at how this type of application could be used to meet our goals and the goals set by the United States," said Daar, who was not involved in the study.
Grindr users were more likely to report PrEP use compared to non-Grindr users. Source: Hoenigl M, et al. Abstract 1961. Presented at: IDWeek; October 2-6, 2019; Washington.
Martin Hoenigl, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues enrolled 1,256 MSM in a cohort study conducted between December 2018 and April 2019.
The majority of participants (86.5%) were not using PrEP, the researchers reported. Nearly half (48%) reported having opened Grindr during the previous 7 days, for an average of 144 minutes.
Among Grindr users, 18.7% reported using PrEP compared to 8.7% of participants who did not use Grindr. Furthermore, among Grindr users who were not using PrEP at the time of the study, 24.6% agreed to start using it compared to 14% of non-users.
"This result likely contributed to the fact that, surprisingly, despite the higher-risk behavior, despite the higher rates of newly diagnosed chlamydia and gonorrhea infections, we found fewer new HIV infections among Grindr users than among non-Grindr users," Hoenigl said during the press conference.
Para evaluar el comportamiento de riesgo, los investigadores utilizaron los puntajes de la Prueba Temprana de San Diego (SDET). Descubrieron que los usuarios de Grindr tenían puntuaciones más altas en comparación con los no usuarios (mediana SDET 2 [IQR 0-5] entre los usuarios de Grindr frente a la mediana 0 [IQR 0-3] entre los no usuarios de Grindr, p <0.001), pero la proporción de sustancia los usuarios no diferían entre los grupos.
“What about the clinician? What’s relevant to them?” Hoenigl said. “I think the main thing is that when you take a patient’s sexual history, you might also ask about Grindr use or other dating app use. Include this in your patient record because it can inform your procedures, in terms of STI and HIV testing, but it also offers HIV PrEP.” – by Marley Ghizzone
Reference:
Hoenigl M, et al. Summary of 1961. Presented at: IDWeek; October 2-6, 2019; Washington.