Engaging Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino Men Who Have Sex With Men for HIV Testing and Prevention Services Through Technology: Protocol for the iSTAMP Comparative Effectiveness Trial

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.

A Narrative Review of Remote Biospecimen Collection Product and Implementation Considerations for Sexual Health Clinical Research — Horvath et al., AIDS and behavior (paywalled) · source ↗

• blood
• dried
• vams
• dbs
• self-collection
• validation
• dct
• serology
• sti

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.

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 lancet. HIV (paywalled) · source ↗

• blood
• dried
• dbs
• self-collection
• dct
• serology
• sti

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.

Prevalence of chlamydial, gonococcal and syphilis positivity by anatomical site and sex via self-collected biospecimens using at-home testing kits among a large and diverse cohort of men and women enrolled in the MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS) in the USA — Mimiaga et al., Sexually transmitted infections (paywalled) · source ↗

• blood
• sti
• dbs
• self-collection
• dried
• serology
• bd-microtainer
• urine

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.

An Examination of Perceptions and Usage of Dried Blood Spot Biosampling Technology for HIV Viral Load Collection Among Youth with HIV — Gurung et al., AIDS and behavior (paywalled) · source ↗

• blood
• dried
• dbs
• self-collection
• acceptability
• dct
• serology

A study of older rural US patients found that 96 to 98 per cent of self-collected dried blood spot specimens were successfully analysed for HIV viral load, with high acceptability. However, concordance between self-reported and measured viral load was only 69 to 82 per cent, highlighting the value of objective decentralised microsampling over self-reporting.

Acceptability and Feasibility of Self-Collected Dried Blood Spot Specimens for Viral Load Monitoring among Rural Older People Living with HIV — Walsh et al., AIDS and behavior (paywalled) · source ↗

• dct
• acceptability
• blood
• dbs
• self-collection
• dried
• serology