The role of digital storytelling methods in promoting health-related outcomes among young adults of color: a systematic review.

Background: Digital storytelling (DST) encourages participants to use technology to create narratives and share personal experiences. Although DST can amplify the voices of groups experiencing marginalization, it is unclear how DST has been used among young adults of color. We also lack a comprehensive understanding of DST's role in addressing health-related outcomes.

Tough talks COVID-19 (TT-C) digital health intervention: multistate randomized controlled trial.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid changes in variant virulence, limited personal protective equipment availability, and diminished hospital capacity necessitated aggressive vaccine distribution. To promote COVID-19 vaccination to historically underserved populations, the National Institutes of Health funded a small group of clinical trials, including the Tough Talks for COVID-19 vaccine (TT-C) digital health intervention (DHI) randomized controlled trial (RCT). Black young adults, 18-29 years, who were unvaccinated or insufficiently vaccinated against COVID-19 were recruited via social media in Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina and randomized to the intervention or standard of care control (N = 360).

Mobile Health Intervention Tools Promoting HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Among Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Sub-Saharan Africa: Scoping Review.

Background: In 2022, 3100 adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa experienced new HIV infections each week. HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is effective at preventing HIV but has limited uptake and persistence. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions can improve medication adherence; however, their utility to improve PrEP adherence among adolescent girls and young women is not well established.

Evaluating concurrency and gaps between self-report and vaccine card data for COVID-19 vaccination.

We compared self-reported vaccination to vaccine card data to assess concurrency in a sample of Black young adults in Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina. We described vaccine card versus self-reported data over time and examined discrepancies in reporting between these two sources. Results indicated strong currency suggesting collection of self-reported data may be an acceptable proxy to requiring official vaccine documentation.

Greater Improvements in Vaccination Outcomes Among Black Young Adults With Vaccine-Resistant Attitudes in the United States South Following a Digital Health Intervention: Latent Profile Analysis of a Randomized Control Trial.

Background: Negative attitudes toward vaccines and suboptimal vaccination rates among African American and Black (Black) Americans have been well documented, due to a history of medical racism and human rights violations in the United States. However, digital health interventions (DHI) have been shown to address racial disparities in several health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease, HIV, and maternal health. The Tough Talks COVID (TT-C) study was a randomized controlled trial of a DHI designed to empower Black young adults in the United States South to make informed, autonomous decisions about COVID-19 vaccine uptake by addressing structural barriers and misinformation about vaccines.

Multilevel Intervention to Support Tailored and Responsive HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Care in Rural North Carolina: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: While access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an important tool for reducing HIV incidence in the United States, disparities in uptake by race, sex, socioeconomic status, and geography persist. In 2018, the US South accounted for more than half of all new HIV diagnoses but only one-third of PrEP users. PrEP use in North Carolina (NC) similarly lags, with uptake being the lowest among young, sexual and gender minority populations, who account for nearly two-thirds of the state's incident infections.

Prepared, Protected, EmPowered (P3): Primary Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial Using a Social Networking, Gamification, and Coaching App to Promote Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Adherence for Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) Youth Living in the United States.

The population-level reductions in HIV incidence attributed to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) have not been fully realized among sexual, gender, and racial/ethnic minority youth. P3 (Prepared, Protected, emPowered) is a comprehensive mobile application (app) intervention developed to support PrEP adherence through gamification, medication tracking, and social engagement. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 246 young men who have sex with men (YMSM) and young transgender women who have sex with men (YTWMSM) currently on or planning to begin PrEP.

Perspectives and Factors Related to Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Use Among Young Men Who Have Sex With Men in the United States: A Mixed-Methods Study on the Role of History of PrEP Use.

This study quantitatively examined factors related to young men who have sex with men (YMSM)'s decisions to use pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) by their history of PrEP use and qualitatively elicited their perspectives on PrEP options. Higher proportions of YMSM who had never used (vs. ever used) PrEP considered the following factors as important in their decisions to use PrEP: (a) Returning to PrEP follow-up visits ( p = .