Determinants of use of mobile phones for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) education and prevention among adolescents and young adult population in Ghana: implications of public health policy and interventions design

Abstract

Background Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are a major public health challenge globally especially among adolescents and young adults in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) in Africa including Ghana. In light of this, mobile phone innovations are advocated to enhance public health education and prevention of STIs in developing health systems. Objective This study assessed mobile phone usage among adolescents and young adult populations pursuing tertiary education and their use of these technologies in the education and prevention of STIs. Method This was a cross-sectional analytical study among 250 adolescents and young adults aged 18–24 at Ghana’s premier and biggest public University. The study was however conducted in only one public university in the Greater Accra region which potentially poses generalizability challenges due to socio-cultural and economic differences in other regions of the country. Data was collected using structured questionnaire and data analysis done with STATA (version 12.0). Univariate probit regression (VCE, Robust) analysis was used to determine factors associated with adolescents and young adult population’s usage of mobile phones in the education and prevention of STIs. Results Out of the 250 adolescents and young adults interviewed, 99% owned mobile phones. Out of this number, 58% them were smartphone users. Also, it was found that male young adults (Coef. = 1.11, p = 0.000) and young adults who owned a smartphone (Coef. = 0.46, p = 0.013) were more likely to use mobile phones for education and prevention of STIs. Conclusion Mobile phone penetration among young adults is nearly 100% in line with the national trend. Additionally, these young adults largely believe in the use of mobile phone programmes for STIs education and prevention. Moreover, respondents were found to be more comfortable using mobile applications than traditional text messaging or phone calls in STIs education and prevention. Future mobile phone programmes for STIs education and prevention should consider innovating customized mobile applications to promote acceptability by the youth and enhance sustainability of such interventions on STIs in Ghana. Even though this study was conducted in only one public university in Ghana, the findings are nonetheless informative and future researchers could consider using a larger sample size across private and public universities in other regions of the country. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12978-019-0763-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…For mobile owners compared to non-owners, the odds of having a comprehensive knowledge of HIV instead of low to moderate knowledge of HIV was higher by more than 27%. This finding is similar to the study done on adolescents from the United States and Botswana, where [36,37,39]. This puts mobile phones at the heart of other strategies used to disseminate HIV/AIDS-related educations and awareness creations.…”

“…This could be due to differences in access to mass media between urban and rural youths which play a very vital role in disseminating HIV-related educations and awareness creations. This study and other studies [18,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] depicted that exposure to mass media is associated with acquiring comprehensive HIVknowledge.…”

“…This finding is similar to the study done on adolescents from the United States and Botswana, where adolescents who discussed peer pressure and connectedness with mobile phones and social media had a general knowledge of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and HIV [ 38 ]. On the other hand, studies from Ghana, Uganda, and the United States elucidated that mobile phone usage among youths is useful for delivering HIV related information and HIV prevention [ 36 , 37 , 39 ]. This puts mobile phones at the heart of other strategies used to disseminate HIV/AIDS-related educations and awareness creations.…”

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“…Penelitian cross sectional yang dilakukan pada 250 remaja di Ghana menunjukkan bahwa aplikasi android merupakan fungsi android yang kedua yang paling sering digunakan setelah panggilan telpon, dimana 162 responden (64,8%) mengatakan mereka sering menggunakan fungsi ponsel ini. Rata-rata penggunaan aplikasi ini oleh peserta selama 48 menit perminggu (8) . Hampir semua responden di pulau Rohde menyatakan akan menggunakan aplikasi untuk belajar tentang kesehatan reproduksi (28) .…”

Test@Work Texts: Mobile Phone Messaging to Increase Awareness of HIV and HIV Testing in UK Construction Employees During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Mobile phone usage has changed in the last decade, with average data usage climbing from 0.2GB per month in 2012 to 1.9GB per month in 2017 and continues to increase, while SMS usage has decreased with outgoing SMS messages reducing from 162 in 2012 to 82 in 2017 [12]. In 2013, several studies indicated younger audiences favoured SMS communication [95,96] but more recently younger audiences have shown to prefer mobile applications for education over SMS messages [97]. Apps have the ability to reach a wider audience, with an app for adolescent sexual education in New York being downloaded over 22 ,000 times [98].…”