Currently submitted to: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Mar 12, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Mar 12, 2026 - May 7, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
User Engagement with an STI Prevention App Tailored for Black MSM using PrEP and Willingness to Expand Usage to Doxycycline Post-Exposure Prophylaxis: A Pilot Randomized Trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are elevated for Black men who have sex with men (BMSM) and those taking HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and thus STI prevention strategies are critically important. PCheck is a PrEP adherence app tailored for BMSM PrEP users, adapted with STI prevention features.
Objective:
This pilot trial was conducted to assess app acceptability, feasibility, and usability.
Methods:
We enrolled BMSM PrEP Users ages 18-35 in a randomized controlled pilot study (1:1 randomization, later amended to 2:1). Surveys were administered using questions from validated questionnaires. In-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted with 12 participants to discuss specific app features and the potential of adapting PCheck for doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (doxy PEP).
Results:
From June 2022 to June 2023, 68 BMSM participants were enrolled, with 40 randomized to receive PCheck. Among these, 30 (75.0%) completed the Week 48 survey. Most participants reported that they were mostly or very satisfied with PCheck (19/30, 63.3%) and that PCheck would mostly or very much work for long-term usage (21/30, 70.0%). In IDIs, participants reported enjoying the app, particularly how it increased their accountability. Most participants had not heard of doxy PEP, but all thought it sounded beneficial. All participants thought the app would facilitate doxy PEP use, for example, by providing resources, pill reminders, sexual activity tracking, and general education about this STI prevention strategy.
Conclusions:
In a small pilot study, results provide encouraging evidence of PCheck’s usability and feasibility, and its potential to be further developed as an app to promote uptake and adherence to doxy PEP. Clinical Trial: NCT05395754
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.