Willingness to Accept Conditional Economic Incentives to Reduce HIV Risks among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Mexico City

Omar Galarraga, Brown University
Sandra Sosa-Rubi, National Institute of Public Health (INSP), Mexico
Cesar Infante, Thomas Coram Research Unit
Paul Gertler, University of California, Berkeley
Stefano Bertozzi, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

We measure willingness to accept (WTA) conditional economic incentives (CEIs) to reduce risks for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among men who have sex with men (MSM), including male sex workers (MSW) in Mexico City. We describe a prevention program for 1,820 participants who received randomly assigned economic incentives if they remained free of STIs (verified by periodic STI testing). The acceptance rates varied from 61 to 80%, based on modality, and the average incentive was $1,423 pesos per year. Using parametric and non-parametric methods, we found that higher levels of incentives were correlated to greater program acceptance rates. The findings suggest that a program to prevent HIV/STI in persons at high risk of infection in Mexico City could be acceptable and effective for the target population, and that the average incentive is within the range of feasible allocations for prevention in the local context.