ArticleSociology of health & illness2021
'You're only there on the phone'? A qualitative exploration of community, affect and agential capacity in HIV self-testing using a smartphone app.
Article in Sociology of health & illness, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Evidence on Digital HIV Self-Testing From Accuracy to Impact: Updated Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- Preferences, beliefs, and attitudes about oral fluid and blood-based HIV self-testing among truck drivers in Kenya choosing not to test for HIV.Frontiers in public health · 2022Trial
- User Input in the Development of Digital Sexual Health Tools: A Scoping Review and Guidance for Tool Developers.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2025Article
- Application of Machine Learning and Emerging Health Technologies in the Uptake of HIV Testing: Bibliometric Analysis of Studies Published From 2000 to 2024.Interactive journal of medical research · 2025Article
- Exploring the diagnostic accuracy of an HIV self-test optimized by a digital app-based solution: Results from a secondary data analysis of a field trial in South Africa.PLOS digital health · 2025Article
- How to make an app-based program work and show how it works.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Qualitative Evaluation of mHealth Implementation for Infectious Disease Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Narrative Review.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2024Review
- Providing HIV testing in men who have sex with men through a gay social networking app in China: A qualitative interview study with multisectoral service providers.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Impact of a personalised, digital, HIV self-testing app-based program on linkages and new infections in the township populations of South Africa.BMJ global health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Mobile health (mHealth) technologies for HIV care are developed to provide diagnostic support, health education, risk assessment and self-monitoring. They aim to either improve or replace part of the therapeutic relationship. Part of the therapeutic relationship is affective, with the emergence of feelings and emotion, yet little research on mHealth for HIV care focuses on affect and HIV testing practices. Furthermore, most of the literature exploring affect and care relations with the introduction of mHealth is limited to the European and Australian context. This article explores affective dimensions of HIV self-testing using a smartphone app strategy in Cape Town, South Africa and Montréal, Canada. This study is based on observation notes, 41 interviews and 1 focus group discussion with study participants and trained HIV healthcare providers from two quantitative studies evaluating the app-based self-test strategy. Our paper reveals how fear, apathy, judgement, frustration and comfort arise in testing encounters using the app and in previous testing experiences, as well as how this relates to care providers and test materials. Attending to affective aspects of this app-based self-testing practice makes visible certain affordances and limitations of the app within the therapeutic encounter and illustrates how mHealth can contribute to HIV care.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.