Social Media Use and HIV Screening Uptake Among Deaf Adults in the United States: Cross-Sectional Survey Study.

Michael Argenyi,Poorna Kushalnagar

doi:10.2196/13658

Abstract

BackgroundAbout 46% of US adults obtain recommended HIV screening at least once during their lifetime. There is little knowledge of screening rates among deaf and hard-of-hearing adults who primarily use American Sign Language (ASL), or of social media as a potentially efficacious route for HIV prevention outreach, despite lower HIV/AIDS-specific health literacy and potentially higher HIV seropositivity rates than hearing peers.ObjectiveWe investigated both the likelihood of HIV screening uptake among deaf adults in the past year and over one year ago, and the relationship between social media use and HIV screening uptake among deaf adult ASL users.MethodsThe Health Information National Trends Survey in ASL was administered to 1340 deaf US adults between 2015-2018. Modified Poisson with robust standard errors was used to assess the relationship between social media usage as a predictor and HIV screening as an outcome (screened more than one year ago, screened within the past year, and never been screened), after adjusting for sociodemographics and sexually transmitted disease (STD) covariates.ResultsThe estimated lifetime prevalence of HIV screening uptake among our sample was 54% (719/1340), with 32% (429/1340) in the past year. Being of younger age, male gender, black, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer, or having some college education or a prior STD were associated with HIV screening uptake. Adjusting for correlates, social media use was significantly associated with HIV screening in the past year, compared to either lifetime or never.ConclusionsScreening falls well short of universal screening targets, with gaps among heterosexual, female, Caucasian, or older deaf adults. HIV screening outreach may not be effective because of technological or linguistic inaccessibility, rendering ASL users an underrecognized minority group. However, social media is still a powerful tool, particularly among younger deaf adults at risk for HIV.

Highlights

The United States Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prioritize HIV screening tests as a cornerstone of the national HIV prevention strategy [1,2]
The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends all adults 15-65 be screened for HIV at least once, with increased frequency of screening among men who have sex with men (MSM), injection drug users, and high-prevalence settings, including sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics, homeless shelters, tuberculosis clinics, and correctional settings [3]
Data for this study was drawn from a large Health Information National Trends Survey in American Sign Language (HINTS-ASL) dataset [27]

Summary

Introduction

The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends all adults 15-65 be screened for HIV at least once, with increased frequency of screening among men who have sex with men (MSM), injection drug users, and high-prevalence settings, including sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics, homeless shelters, tuberculosis clinics, and correctional settings [3]. Factors found to increase the likelihood that a person receives an HIV test include: being MSM [9,10], a young adult [11], black [10,12], having recent STD testing or an STD diagnosis [13], and having access to HIV screening [13]. There is little knowledge of screening rates among deaf and hard-of-hearing adults who primarily use American Sign Language (ASL), or of social media as a potentially efficacious route for HIV prevention outreach, despite lower HIV/AIDS-specific health literacy and potentially higher HIV seropositivity rates than hearing peers

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion