Geolocation Mobile Apps and Spatial Analysis

Geographically Explicit Ecological Momentary Assessment (GEMA)

Understanding Sexual Health in Networks Sub-Study

Johns Hopkins University in Collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Challenge: Decrease sexually transmitted diseases among men by addressing stigma and carefully navigating sensitive topics.

We sought to understand patients’ sexual health behaviors, PrEP usage, knowledge of syphilis symptoms and transmission, geographic venues associated with health behaviors that increase disease transmission. Our team, in collaboration with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), developed a mobile geolocation app incorporating daily-diary survey methodologies to understand the associations between sex partner selection, sexual and substance use behaviors and sex partner meeting venues. We found that GEMA methodology was an effective and feasible method to track behavior and provided granular data and insights into daily behaviors of men who have sex with men.

Additional skills:

• Survey development and implementation

• Collaboration with data programmers

• Program retention analysis

• QA/QC

• Study evaluation

• Data management and analysis

• Maintaining confidentiality of sensitive data