Identification of Key Influencers for Secondary Distribution of HIV Self-Testing Kits Among Chinese Men Who Have Sex With Men: Development of an Ensemble Machine Learning Approach.

ABSTRACT:

Background

HIV self-testing (HIVST) has been rapidly scaled up and additional strategies further expand testing uptake. Secondary distribution involves people (defined as "indexes") applying for multiple kits and subsequently sharing them with people (defined as "alters") in their social networks. However, identifying key influencers is difficult.

Objective

This study aimed to develop an innovative ensemble machine learning approach to identify key influencers among Chinese men who have sex with men (MSM) for secondary distribution of HIVST kits.

Methods

We defined three types of key influencers: (1) key distributors who can distribute more kits, (2) key promoters who can contribute to finding first-time testing alters, and (3) key detectors who can help to find posit

SUBMITTER: Jing F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10704319 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature