Spurring Innovation in HIV Testing and Linkage: A Crowdsourcing Approach

描述（由申请人提供）：1907年，在一个县集市上，人群准确地估计了一头牛的重量。对人群的中位数估计比农民和其他专家的估计更准确。这一令人吃惊的观察表明了群体或社区在特定背景下的智慧。众包是一个由个人完成的任务，并以竞赛或公开电话的形式将其外包给一个大团体的过程。例如，维基百科为其在线百科全书征集内容和编辑。将众包应用于艾滋病毒检测和联系活动，提供了一个机会，可以更好地了解隐藏的关键人群的需求和偏好，如男男性行为者，包括那些有高风险行为但不利用现有卫生服务的人。在线竞赛可以产生新颖的内容、视觉图像和传播网络，用于艾滋病毒检测和联系活动。另一个来自私营部门的艾滋病毒工具，社会营销也可以加强艾滋病毒运动。社会营销是将商业营销概念系统地应用于项目的分析、规划、执行和评估。社会营销汇集了专业营销和公共卫生专门知识，以便更有效地包装和提供艾滋病毒检测和联系服务。在设计艾滋病毒防治运动时，众包和社会营销方法之间的主要区别是，众包主要由社区参与驱动，自下而上发展，而社会营销则由公共卫生专家驱动，自上而下发展。我们的研究将集中在年轻（18- 29岁）的中国男男性接触者，他们是在线论坛的高度活跃的参与者，但他们的力量还没有被利用来促进艾滋病毒检测和护理的联系。这部分男子的艾滋病毒感染率很高，但基本上没有接受检测，也没有参与。我们假设，一个众包的运动将有更大的影响，艾滋病毒检测和护理的联系，因为更大的运动参与。我们的多学科研究团队汇集了众包和社会营销的经验，与中国男男性行为者长期合作的历史，以及丰富的当地艾滋病研究基础设施，旨在研究以下目标：（1）开发众包干预和社会营销干预，以加强年轻成年男男性行为者之间的艾滋病检测和联系;（2）比较众包干预和社会营销干预对艾滋病毒检测的有效性，并使用多地点，准实验性试验;（3）估计众包和社会营销干预对四个城市的年轻男男性行为者艾滋病毒传播的影响。非政府组织全球性健康社会创业（SESH）的执行伙伴开发并试点了众包方法，以促进中国的艾滋病毒检测。长期在国内的研究项目和基础设施，在中国的研究项目，增加了成功的可能性。这项研究将有助于加强艾滋病毒运动，并最终导致减少艾滋病毒的感染和传播。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In 1907 the crowd at a county fair accurately estimated the weight of an ox. The median estimate of the crowd was more accurate than estimates from farmers and other experts. This startling observation demonstrates the wisdom of the crowds or communities in specific contexts. Crowdsourcing is the process of taking a task performed by an individual and outsourcing it to a large group in the form of a contest or open call. For example, Wikipedia solicits content and editing for its online encyclopedia. Applied to HIV testing and linkage campaigns, crowdsourcing offers an opportunity to better understand the needs and preferences of hidden key populations such as men who have sex with men (MSM), including those who have high risk behaviors but do not utilize existing health services. Online contests can generate novel content, visual images, and distribution networks for HIV testing and linkage campaigns. Another HIV tool originating from the private sector, social marketing can also enhance HIV campaigns. Social marketing is the systematic application of commercial marketing concepts to the analysis, planning, execution, and evaluation of programs. Social marketing brings together professional marketing and public health expertise in order to more effectively package and deliver HIV testing and linkage services. The major distinction between crowdsourcing and social marketing approaches in designing HIV campaigns is that crowdsourcing is largely driven by community engagement and developed bottom-up whereas social marketing is driven by public health specialists and developed top-down. Our research will focus on young (18-29yo) Chinese MSM who are highly active participants in online forums, but whose power has not been tapped for promoting HIV testing and linkage to care. This subset of men has a high HIV incidence, yet remains largely untested and unengaged. We hypothesize that a crowdsourced campaign will have a higher impact on HIV testing and linkage to care because of greater campaign engagement. Our multi-disciplinary research team brings together crowdsourcing and social marketing experience, a long term history of working with and on behalf of MSM in China, and a rich local infrastructure for HIV research, to investigate the following aims: (1) Develop a crowdsourced intervention and a social marketing intervention to enhance HIV testing and linkage among young adult MSM; (2) Compare the effectiveness of a crowdsourced intervention and a social marketing intervention on HIV testing and linkage using a multisite, quasi-experimental trial; and (3) Estimate the impact of crowdsourced and social marketing interventions among young MSM on HIV transmission in four cities using modeling. Implementing partners at Social Entrepreneurship for Sexual Health (SESH) Global, a non-governmental organization, have developed and piloted crowdsourcing methods to promote HIV testing in China. Long standing in-country research projects and infrastructure at UNC Project-China increase the likelihood of success. This research will contribute to enhanced HIV campaigns and ultimately lead to decreased HIV acquisition and transmission.