Improving Consent and Survey Procedures for young MSM in Web-based HIV Prevention

描述（由申请人提供）：在美国，男男性行为者是受艾滋病毒影响最严重的风险人群，年轻的男男性行为者中的流行病大幅增长。鉴于有色人种美国人扩大互联网访问的模式，以及社交网络社区在美国年轻人中的高覆盖率，互联网是进行性健康研究和向年轻男男性接触者提供艾滋病毒预防干预措施的一个有前途的场所。然而，尽管互联网有一些实质性的优势，包括数据积累的速度和成本效益，但基于互联网的数据收集也有重要的局限性。例如，缺乏关于在线知情同意程序有效性的经验数据，在线调查中经常有大量人退出，人们担心，当提供金钱奖励时，有些人可能会欺骗性地参加研究，从而损害研究结果的有效性。因此，我们建议进行一系列的实验，这将导致如何进行基于互联网的艾滋病毒预防研究与年轻的男男性接触者的方式，提高保护人类受试者，减少数据收集的偏见，提高知识。该设计将包括两个横断面随机对照试验，共2650名男男性接触者通过社交网站和同性恋为导向的互联网场所招募。在第一次试验中，我们将测试两种选择 知情同意的方法（视频同意和“常见问题”式的项目符号同意）与提供标准同意文件。结果将是对同意内容的理解，以及同意的男性比例。在第二次试验中，我们将开发和测试非货币激励措施，以促进完成调查。参与者将被随机分配到五个组中的一个：三种非货币激励（利他主义消息传递，访问独家主题视频内容，访问“仪表板”，将参与者的反应与其他MSM的反应进行比较），适度的货币激励，或没有激励（标准实践组）。其结果将是完成调查，并作为调查失败前的时间。我们希望拟议的研究将有助于确定和促进知情同意的最佳方法，并参与这一受严重影响的美国年轻人群体的研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Men who have sex with men are the risk population most heavily impacted by HIV in the United States, and there substantial growth in the epidemic among young MSM. Given patterns of expanding access to the internet by Americans of color, and the high coverage among young Americans of social networking communities, the internet is a promising venue both for conducting sexual health research and delivering HIV prevention interventions to young MSM. However, despite some substantial advantages of the internet, including such as speed of data accrual and cost efficiency, there are also important limitations to internet-based data collections. For example, there is a lack of empirical data about the effectiveness of informed consent processes online, there is often substantial dropout from online surveys, and there are concerns that some people might fraudulently enroll in studies when monetary incentives are offered, compromising the validity of research results. Thus, we propose to conduct a series of experiments that will result in improved knowledge of how to conduct internet-based HIV prevention research with young MSM in ways that improve the protection of human subjects and decrease biases in data collections. The design will consist of two cross-sectional randomized controlled trials of a total of 2650 MSM recruited through social networking sites and gay-oriented Internet venues. In the first trial, we will test two alternative approaches to informed consent (video consent and "FAQ"-style bulleted consent) versus provision of a standard consent document. Outcomes will be comprehension of the content of the consent, and proportion of men who consent. In the second trial, we will develop and test non-monetary incentives to promote completion of surveys. Participants will be randomized to one of five arms: three kinds of non-monetary incentives (altruistic messaging, access to exclusive topical video content, and access to a "dashboard", comparing the participant's responses to those of other MSM), a modest monetary incentive, or no incentive (standard of practice arm). The outcome will be completion of the survey, operationalized as time to failure in the survey. We expect that the proposed research will help support the identification and promotion of best methods for informed consent and engagement in research in this heavily impacted group of young Americans.