Willingness to Participate in and Preferences for Studies of mHealth HIV Prevention Interventions: Cross-Sectional Study Among Sexual and Gender Minority Groups in the Southern United States

A number of mobile HIV prevention interventions have been developed to increase uptake of HIV prevention services such as HIV testing and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Most of these interventions have been tested among urban populations. However, sexual and gender minority (SGM) groups in rural areas might also benefit from mobile HIV prevention interventions. These groups have heightened experiences of stigma and discrimination and have limited access to culturally competent healthcare. We conducted a survey of SGM participants in the southern United States to assess willingness to use the common features of mobile HIV prevention interventions and to participate in research studies of these interventions and to compare the results between rural and non-rural respondents. We found few differences in willingness to use common features of mobile HIV prevention interventions based on rurality and high levels of cellular connectivity across participants. Based on these results, rural residence is not a barrier to using mobile HIV prevention interventions.