Behavioral interventions promoting HIV serostatus disclosure to sex partners among HIV-positive men who have sex with men: a systematic review

Objectives This review aimed to identify intervention components which were effective to promote disclosure of HIV status among men have sex with men (MSM) living with HIV, particularly from a theoretical perspective. Methods A systematic review was performed through searching electronic databases, HIV-related conferences websites, and registered ongoing randomized controlled trials. Studies were included if they reported intervention evaluation results related to HIV disclosure and published before December 31, 2017. Two independent reviewers collected studies and extracted data. Results Eight studies met the inclusion criteria and were summarized. Interventions appeared effective in promoting HIV disclosure to their sex partners among MSM living with HIV if they were theory based (e.g., consequence theory and social cognitive theory). Key elements of effective interventions consisted of increasing disclosure self-efficacy, highlighting disclosure benefits, assisting risk assessment, developing disclosure strategy, and using messages under social influence. Conclusions Findings of this review imply that future interventions are more likely to succeed if they apply consequence theory, social cognitive theory, and trans-theoretical model of behavior change and include multiple key intervention components.