Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. 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. A critical component of PS is partner notification, in which specially trained health program staff assist individuals newly diagnosed with HIV or an STD index patients in confidentially notifying their sex partners of possible exposure. PS are an effective method for detecting new cases of HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia in the U.
GSN apps use global positioning system technology on smartphones to allow users to connect with other users based on their location. Historically, partners have been notified in person or by phone, although many health departments have adapted over time to include notification through email, instant messaging, social networking sites, and sex-seeking sites, and internet partner notification has been found to be acceptable to U.
MSM Ehlman et al. GSN apps pose unique partner tracing challenges since users often do not have a stable profile or unique profile name, messages with other users are only stored for a limited time, users sometimes delete their profiles or block other users, and users can only see profiles based on location.
Since GSN apps have become a common method for meeting sex partners among U. This qualitative study examined how MSM across the U. Focus group results informed the development of a subsequent online survey of U. MSM assessing the acceptability of app-based partner notification methods. Each focus group consisted of 6β8 participants. By recruiting through general social networking apps instead of selected GSN apps, we hoped to reach users of a broader array of apps and avoid oversampling users of the GSN apps used for recruitment.
