Exploring the potential of mobile phone and web based technology to promote the Sexual & Reproductive Health of high school aged youths in Zimbabwe

Type Thesis or Dissertation - Master Thesis
Title Exploring the potential of mobile phone and web based technology to promote the Sexual & Reproductive Health of high school aged youths in Zimbabwe
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2013
URL http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/178893/178893.pdf
Abstract
Telemedicine, or eHealth, by definition encompasses the communication of health practices via technology, and the advent of the internet and mobile phone technology brought seemingly endless possibilities for telemedicine. Such technologies may be an instrumental tool to promote health in hard to engage groups, especially young people, as interventions that make use of the internet tend to influence young people since they frequently use the internet to find information pertaining to their health. Generally, youths are put off by more traditional means of engaging with health care services, and this applies more so to accessing Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services. The general consensus is that most youths appreciate the anonymity, confidentiality and convenience factors associated with accessing SRH information from the internet. The thesis work undertaken and documented in this report is aimed at systematically exploring the potential that is offered by web-based and mobile phone technology in the promotion of Sexual & Reproductive Health of high school aged youths in Zimbabwe. Youth SRH services are sparsely available in Zimbabwe and the exploitation of available and future technologies in youth SRH services has not been widely explored. The use of mobile phones in Zimbabwe is on the rise and broadband internet is becoming widely available, thus this technology can be utilized efficiently to offer services that are aimed at accurately informing the young people of Zimbabwe about their sexual and reproductive health. From the research carried out, only 10% of youths have accessed available SRH services, but given that 97% and 86% of survey participants have access to a mobile phone and the internet respectively, it would suggest that employing an SRH intervention that exploits this readily available media would be more effective.

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