Mass media interventions for promoting HIV testing

Promoting the uptake of HIV testing among men who have sex with men: systematic review of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness

“…This review did not consider evidence relating to HIV testing in populations other than MSM, although this evidence is potentially relevant; for example, there is evidence that mass media interventions are effective in the general population 13. It also did not consider the considerable evidence on other risk-reduction strategies among MSM.…”

“…Two high-quality systematic reviews whose scope partly overlaps with that of the present review were located by our searches. One of these focused on mass media interventions to promote HIV testing, but included all populations, not only MSM 13. The other included HIV health promotion interventions for MSM in general, but did not have a primary focus on HIV testing, and did not include a separate synthesis of evidence relating to interventions promoting HIV testing 14…”

Does the frequency of HIV and STI testing among men who have sex with men in primary care adhere with Australian guidelines?

“…Health promotion campaigns or other strategies focused on more frequent testing among all MSM or those at high risk should also be considered. Although the effects of social marketing campaigns are generally short lived,24 they can be coupled with other strategies, like SMS reminders, which reinforce the health promotion messages.…”

No increase in HIV or sexually transmissible infection testing following a social marketing campaign among men who have sex with men

“…In this context, health authorities recommended a social marketing campaign to increase testing. Media campaigns to promote HIV testing have been previously shown to have a significant initial impact on the uptake of HIV testing8 and social marketing has been shown recently to be an effective strategy at changing sexual or testing behaviour among MSM 9 10…”