The TARGET feasibility study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A feasibility study to explore the acceptability and effectiveness of a peer to peer postal HIV and viral hepatitis testing intervention, targeted towards at-risk and hard to reach men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people who have sex with men (TPSM) compared with standard of care advertisement posters (SOCAP)
IRAS ID
253425
Contact name
Stephen Taylor
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS FT
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
IN-UK-985-4563, GILEAD REFERENCE NUMBER
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 4 days
Research summary
The TARGET Study is being conducted to establish whether the strategy of using recruited peer referrers as advocates for online blood borne virus (BBV) testing for high-risk and hard-to-reach men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people who have sex with men (TPSM) is acceptable and feasible. If the strategy is found to be acceptable and feasible a follow up study assessing its effectiveness in comparison to targeted standard of care health advertising posters (SOCAP), promoting testing for BBV.
Feasibility will be assessed against predefined criteria, and the views and opinions of study participants and peer referrers will be sought at each point in the testing strategy; recruitment of Testing Champions (TCs), TC engagement with Online Kit Requesters (OKRs) and vice versa, OKRs engagement with standard of care advertisement posters (SOCAP), kit request, kit return and communication of the test result as part of the process evaluation.
The peer referrer recruitment and training process will be conducted over a 6-week period, followed by a 24-week period of an onward referral process (peer referrers and health promotion posters in parallel). This will will then be followed by a 10-week period of semi-structured interviews with participants and peer referrers.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/EM/0240
Date of REC Opinion
21 Aug 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion