The impact of online media on the awareness and uptake of pre-exposure prophylaxis among Asian-born men who have sex with men in Australia

After potential participants see the trial ads, they can click on the link or scan the QR code that links to the trial information and consent online page, where participants will be provided with information about eligibility, the trial process and compensation, and instructions to complete the trial. After participants consent to participate in the trial, they will answer questions to confirm their eligibility. Once Qualtrics confirms that they are eligible, they will enter the trial. In the first part of the trial, participants will answer questions regarding their demographic characteristics, contact information including an email address and phone number, questionnaires related to HIV- and PrEP knowledge, attitudes toward PrEP and intention-to-use PrEP. Subsequently, they will be randomised to receive either the audio drama or written information page (Pan.org.au). The survey platform (Qualtrics) will randomly assign participants to either arm. In the intervention arm, participants will watch the audio drama developed by the local community for this study. The audio drama is composed of six episodes of an audio drama (podcast style). The length of each episode is about 3-5 minutes, and the total length is about 20-30 minutes. The audio drama’s script is written by the Asian-born MSM living in Australia with the assistance of scriptwriters and then reviewed by the research team. There are three main queer Asian-born MSM characters, including a newly-arrived MSM who is a naïve pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV (PrEP) user, an experienced PrEP user who is vulnerable to HIV infection and an experienced PrEP user who is at low risk of HIV infection. The audio drama, which was designed by community members to tackle common misconceptions and barriers to PrEP implementation in this group, will show self-growth within the newly-arrived MSM to increase relatability to Asian-born MSM who come to Australia while delivering health messages to the audience in a fun and easy-to-follow manner. Examples of the health messages are ‘enjoy safe sex, get PrEP’ and ‘PrEP is for everyone, being on PrEP doesn’t mean saying goodbye to your culture’. Participants have the flexibility to consume the drama at their own discretion and they can leave the survey, return, continue watching the audio drama and finish this survey within the next 2 weeks by simply reopening the same link in the same browser. We will track how many episodes participants complete. We will track the total time participants spend to finish watching each episodes. They should spend between 2 to 10 minutes for watching each episode of the audio drama.