Internet recruitment for sexually transmitted infection screening among men who have sex with men in Eastern Europe

Men who have sex with men (MSM) face negative health outcomes such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs) at disproportionate rates. Nonetheless, infections may be underestimated due to limited uptake in testing. To increase testing, screening interventions have been utilized in the past; however, some have resulted in limitations such as poor recruitment. To increase recruitment for screening of MSM in Estonia, two different recruitment strategies were examined. Recruitment was separated into two promotional periods: passive and active. Passive consisted of banners on gay-related sites, while active also placed banners on websites to the general public such as Facebook linked to specific thematic pages and users self-identifying as men. More men were recruited during the active period of five weeks (n=134) than the passive period of 46 weeks (n=126). Active promotion was so successful in that the number of home sampling kit orders far exceeded what was projected, forcing promotion to the general public to be closed after 13 days. Recruiting MSM through a combination of general public and gay-related websites and applications has the ability to quickly recruit for testing interventions. This method can recruit a large number in a short amount of time; therefore, a budget must be planned accordingly to support testing for all that participate.