A. Lina Rosengren A E , Emily Huang B , Joseph Daniels C , Sean D. Young D , Robert W. Marlin B and Jeffrey D. Klausner B 
 
 Background : Our study aimed to determine if Grindr™ is an effective means of reaching high-risk men who have sex with men (MSM) for HIV testing.  The study targeted gay black and Hispanic men in Los Angeles, utilizing banner ads that offered access to HIV testing kits by mail or via pharmacy or vending machine in the parking lot of the L.A. LGBT Center. Methods : Free HIV self-test kits were advertised on Grindr™ from 13 October to 11 November 2014, consisting of 300 000 banner ads and three broadcast messages targeting a high-risk HIV population in LA. Of the 56 black and Hispanic men who requested kits and were willing to answer survey questions, 69 percent had not been tested in the last six months; medical experts recommend that gay men who do not always use condoms get tested every three months. In the United States, young gay black and Hispanic men are the groups most likely to be infected with H.I.V. Given that Grindr is utilized by over five million men across 192 countries, this could be a very effective way going forward to combat the spread of HIV infection in the gay community.
– Researchers are pushing for banner ads that offer free HIV test kits to gay men on the dating and hookup site Grindr after a UCLA and Indiana University study. Results from the study, reported in the journal Sexual Health, suggest that greater access to free testing will improve rates of testing. The team says that after posting 300,000 banners ads and three broadcast messages targeting a high-risk HIV population in Los Angeles in the fall of 2014, 333 tests were requested, 56 men took them and filled out questionnaires, and two men ultimately learned that they were HIV positive. Engadget notes that given 5 million men in 192 countries use Grindr, the simple step could be a "very effective" means of slowing the spread of HIV. Paper author Dr. Jeffrey D. Klausner, an HIV specialist at UCLA's school of medicine, tells the New York Times that using the app to encourage home testing is "ripe for expansion" in other cities and possibly countries. He says they used Grindr because it's the "oldest and biggest" gay dating app, and they focused on black and Hispanic men who have sex with men because they are four times more likely than their white counterparts to not know they are HIV positive. Recipients received test kits in the mail, via a pharmacy voucher, or via a code that produced a vending machine kit at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. The test relies on a simple swab of the gums and results are available in 20 minutes. (The CDC predicts that one in two gay black men alive today will become HIV positive in their lifetime.)