Effectiveness of integrating HIV prevention within sexual reproductive health services with or without peer support among adolescents and young adults in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (Isisekelo Sempilo): 2 × 2 factorial, open-label, randomised controlled trial
Shahmanesh et al.
The finding, in our words
Self-collected dried blood spots were used to assess HIV status at 12 months in 1168 participants. Integration of sexual and reproductive health services increased linkage to HIV prevention care within 60 days (adjusted odds ratio 1·68) compared with standard referral, whereas peer support had no effect.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
This narrative review surveys remote biospecimen collection products for sexual health research, including dried blood spots and volumetric absorptive microsampling, and concludes that successful implementation needs a multidisciplinary, participant-centred team with sufficient time allocated to the complexities of collection procedures and processes.
Horvath et al., AIDS and behavior (paywalled) · source ↗
This protocol paper describes a decentralised HIV self-testing trial that enrolled 2093 Black and Hispanic men who have sex with men across 11 US states. The study incorporates laboratory analysis of participant-returned dried blood spot cards to verify self-reported HIV status, illustrating how patient-centric microsampling can be integrated into remote serology screening for underserved populations.
The study found that self-collection of dried blood spots and other samples using at-home kits was a useful and cost-effective method for screening a large cohort for sexually transmitted infections outside a clinic. This demonstrates the feasibility of decentralised, patient-centric sampling for population-level infectious disease surveillance.
Mimiaga et al., Sexually transmitted infections (paywalled) · source ↗
In a pilot mixed-methods study of youth with HIV, mailed HemaSpot-HF kits enabled home-based dried blood spot collection that participants found feasible and acceptable, supporting remote viral load monitoring and a self-management model for decentralised care.
Gurung et al., AIDS and behavior (paywalled) · source ↗
This pilot study found that while initial household enrolment was low at 9%, remote follow-up was highly feasible, with 88% of respondents, 151 of 172, successfully returning self-collected capillary blood samples after 12 months. This shows that decentralised microsampling is viable for household cohorts when face-to-face contact is restricted.