mHealth Engagement for Antiretroviral Medication Adherence Among People With HIV and Substance Use Disorders: Observational Study.

Background: Despite the increasing popularity of mobile health (mHealth) technologies, little is known about which types of mHealth system engagement might affect the maintenance of antiretroviral therapy among people with HIV and substance use disorders.

Objective: This study aimed to use longitudinal and detailed system logs and weekly survey data to test a mediation model, where mHealth engagement indicators were treated as predictors, substance use and confidence in HIV management were treated as joint mediators, and antiretroviral therapy adherence was treated as the outcome. We further distinguished the initiation and intensity of system engagement by mode (expression vs reception) and by communication levels (intraindividual vs dyadic vs network).

Methods: Tailored for people with HIV living with substance use disorders, the mHealth app was distributed among 208 participants aged >18 years from 2 US health clinics. Supervised by medical professionals, participants received weekly surveys through the app to report their health status and medication adherence data. System use was passively collected through the app, operationalized as transformed click-level data, aggregated weekly, and connected to survey responses with a 7-day lagged window. Using the weekly check-in record provided by participants as the unit of analysis (N=681), linear regression and structure equation models with cluster-robust SEs were used for analyses, controlling within-person autocorrelation and group-level error correlations. Racial groups were examined as moderators in the structure equation models.

Results: We found that (1) intensity, not initiation, of system use; (2) dyadic message expression and reception; and (3) network expression positively predicted medication adherence through joint mediators (substance use and confidence in HIV management). However, intraindividual reception (ie, rereading saved entries for personal motivation) negatively predicts medication adherence through joint mediators. We also found Black participants have distinct usage patterns, suggesting the need to tailor mHealth interventions for this subgroup.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of considering the intensity of system engagement, rather than initiation alone, when designing mHealth interventions for people with HIV and tailoring these systems to Black communities.