Study Overview

Global and local evidence demonstrated that sexual and gender diverse people, i.e., MSM, MSW, and transgender women (hijra) encounter healthcare access barriers, stigmatization, and other socio-structural complexities which insidiously affect their sexual and reproductive health (SRH) vulnerabilities. However, existing interventions for these populations merely account for HIV/STIs, thus leaving other SRH issues neglected, despite their burgeoning SRHR concerns. This proposed study aims to develop a standalone service delivery modality which can address holistic SRHR needs (including HIV/STIs) of sexual and gender diverse people. Through this study, we will compare knowledge, attitude, and practice on SRHR among sexual and gender diverse people in intervention and comparison areas at baseline and post-intervention. We will find out implementation challenges of the proposed ICT-based SRHR services. After that, we will conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of the proposed ICT-based services compared to the conventional DIC-based existing services. To achieve the objectives, a hybrid type-1 effectiveness-implementation design will be utilised in three phases under the framework of implementation research which includes the (i) formative phase; (ii) implementation phase; and (iii) evaluation phase, by applying a parallel convergent mixed-methods quasi-experimental study design. The study will include 341 participants each from the intervention and comparison sites. At each stage, both quantitative and qualitative data will be collected simultaneously and triangulated using the RE-AIM framework (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance).