Description

A randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted in Malaysia to assess the efficacy of an AI-chatbot-based mHealth intervention versus treatment as usual (TAU) with HIV testing as the primary outcome. The primary outcome will be the proportion of participants who get tested within 180 days.

Participants will be randomized to the chatbot group and TAU group. Participants in the intervention group will get access to an AI-chatbot and can interact with the AI-chatbot at any time. In each round of the interactive communication, the chatbot will provide automated personalized messages containing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), mental health, or HIV testing-related information, motivation and skills based on the participants' answers and will continuously update over time. The participants assigned to the TAU group will get access to an attention-chatbot and can interact with the attention-chatbot at any time. In each round of the interaction, the chatbot will provide pre-scripted time-attention health education messages to the participants.

In addition to the above interventions, the research assistant will manually sent to the participants' phone a piece of educational material and an online survey link every 30 days (at days 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180). The primary outcome of HIV testing will be collected through the survey.