There is a need for ongoing behavioral surveillance of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk among transgender women, using assessments adapted to this population. We therefore developed and piloted the Transgender Women's Internet Survey and Testing (TWIST) study, a cross-sectional behavioral survey of transgender women in the United States coupled with remote biospecimen collection and testing.
Methods:
Participants age 15+ were recruited by using social media advertisements. Participants were eligible to take the survey if they reported male sex at birth, identified as female or as a transgender woman, resided in the United States, and reported ever having oral, vaginal, or anal sex. We examined a number of behavioral indicators by age, county population density, and medical gender affirmation treatment, using multivariable regression modeling. A sample of respondents was invited to receive a home biospecimen collection kit for HIV/STI testing.
Results:
The 401 participants were mainly non-Hispanic white and younger than 25 years. Self-reported HIV prevalence was 1.3% (5/401), and almost half (47.1%, 189/401) did not know their HIV status. Receiving medical gender affirmation was strongly associated with past-year HIV and STI testing, independent of general health care engagement. Of the 155 participants invited to receive home biospecimen collection kits, 48 (31.0%) consented and of those, 21 (43.8%) returned specimens for testing.
Conclusion:
This pilot study successfully reached its recruitment target and generated useful behavioral measures from an online sample of transgender women. We anticipate that online recruitment combined with self-collection of biospecimens will serve as an innovative and scalable strategy for ongoing monitoring of HIV/STI behavioral trends among U.S. transgender women.
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