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Publication Profiles

Epic Allies: A Gamified Mobile App to Improve Engagement in HIV Care and Antiretroviral Adherence among Young Men Who have Sex with Men

Citation

Hightow-Weidman L, Muessig KE, Egger JR, Vecchio A, Platt A. Epic Allies: A Gamified Mobile App to Improve Engagement in HIV Care and Antiretroviral Adherence among Young Men Who have Sex with Men. AIDS Behav. 2021;25(8):2599-2617. doi:10.1007/s10461-021-03222-y

Implementation stage:

Implementation

Implementation outcomes reported:

Not specified

Continuum target addressed:

Engagement in treatment (including retention and re-engagement), ART adherence, Viral suppression

Geography:

Non-priority jurisdiction

Study Participant Classification:

Recipients of care

Plain Language Objectives

The researchers wanted to find out whether a mobile app using games, self-management tools, and social support could help young men living with HIV take treatment consistently and reduce HIV in their blood to a very low level.

Plain Language Abstract

Young men who have sex with men experience high HIV incidence, and young people living with HIV often have difficulty maintaining viral suppression, meaning that HIV in the blood remains at a very low level. Researchers enrolled 146 participants ages 16–24 in a randomized trial of Epic Allies, a mobile app that combined self-management tools, game features, and social support to encourage care engagement and medication-taking. At 26 weeks, viral suppression had improved in both groups: 62.9% of intervention participants and 73.5% of controls were suppressed. The adjusted relative risk was 0.93, with a confidence interval that included no difference between groups. Antiretroviral adherence also improved in both groups. Benefits appeared stronger among participants who used the app regularly, but app-use and recruitment problems limited interpretation. The trial therefore did not establish that Epic Allies caused better health outcomes than the comparison condition. The findings underscore a common implementation challenge for digital interventions: potential benefits may depend on sustained use, while low or uneven engagement can make effectiveness difficult to determine.

Key Takeaways

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