Completion of the SELPHI Study

With the completion of the SELPHI Participant Webinar on Thursday 8th July 2021, the SELPHI Study's journey has come to an end. It's been an exciting four years (has it really been that long?), and thanks to the contribution of our participants we have gathered an exceptional amount of data to help us answer the question: Does offering free self-testing help people get tested, and be tested more often?

The last study update went into the study results in detail, covering:

- Who took part

- Main results from both parts of the study

- Other things we've learned from running the study

The study has left us with a few unanswered questions, such as what the results mean for availability of self-testing in the UK. Participants were invited the webinar to discuss the study results in greater detail, share opinions about these unanswered questions, and offer feedback. The webinar was attended by the SELPHI Study Team, including Professor Sheena McCormack and Professor Alison Rodger, and facilitated by our Participant and Public Representative Roger Pebody. We felt the webinar was well received, and the discussions were incredibly helpful - to both the study team and the attendees!

The study team are incredibly grateful to all the participants who took part and provided the data that made the SELPHI study the success that it was. Although we found that offering self-testing did not help people get diagnosed with HIV more quickly, we did find that self-testing may have particular benefits for minority groups, and a high-uptake of repeat testing offered in the study showed there is a lot of interest in HIV self-testing. More results from SELPHI will continue to be published in scientific journals.