Understanding and Designing Multi-level Preventive Medication Support Against HIV for Men who Have Sex with Men in Taiwan

Sexual health is an important domain that deserves more HCI attention, such as supporting the practices of men who have sex with men (MSM) against HIV risks. One current clinical approach to addressing this issue is to use preventive medicine like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). As medication adherence of PrEP is challenging that involves users’ individual knowledge, sex practices, relational status, and community support, technological mediation benefits from a human-centered perspective that goes beyond individual-level support to understand MSM’s needs so as to design a holistic technological intervention for them. With an in-depth interview (n = 22) with MSM from two major cities in Taiwan, we drew on the theoretical framework of the social ecological model and identified three levels of influences, including individual, interpersonal, and sociocultural, that shape the enablers, inhibitors, risks and challenges, and support towards MSM’s PrEP use. We proposed correspondent technological design implications to support what we found based on the understanding of our participants.