A national recruitment strategy for HIV-serodiscordant partners living in Canada for the Positive Plus One study: a mixed-methods study
(2022) 22:832 Xi et al BMC Public Health https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13153-5 Open Access RESEARCH A national recruitment strategy for HIV‑serodiscordant partners living in Canada for the Positive Plus One study: a mixed‑methods study Min Xi1,2,3, Sandra Bullock3*, Joshua B. Mendelsohn4, James Iveniuk5, Veronika Moravan6, Ann N. Burchell3,7,8, Darrell H. S. Tan2,7,9, Amrita Daftary10, Tamara Thompson11, Bertrand Lebouché12,13,14, Laura Bisaillon15, Ted Myers3 and Liviana Calzavara3 Abstract Background: With the recent shift in focus to addressing HIV risk within relationships and couple-based interventions to prevent HIV transmission, successful recruitment of individuals involved in HIV-serodiscordant relationships is crucial This paper evaluates methods used by the Positive Plus One (PP1) study to recruit and collect data on a diverse national sample of dyads and individuals involved in current or past HIV-serodiscordant relationships, discusses the strengths and limitations of the recruitment approach, and makes recommendations to inform the interpretation of study results and the design of future studies Methods: PP1 used a multi-pronged approach to recruit adults involved in a current or past HIV-serodiscordant relationship in Canada from 2016 to 2018 to complete a survey and an interview Upon survey completion, index (first recruited) partners were invited to recruit their primary current HIV-serodiscordant partner We investigated participant enrollment by recruitment source, participant-, relationship-, and dyad-level sociodemographic characteristics, missing data, and correlates of participation for individuals recruited by their partners Results: We recruited 613 participants (355 HIV-positive; 258 HIV-negative) across 10 Canadian provinces, including 153 complete dyads and 307 individuals who participated alone, and representing 460 HIV-serodiscordant relationships Among those in current relationships, HIV-positive participants were more likely than HIV-negative participants to learn of the study through an ASO staff member (36% v 20%, p