JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

World Health Organization recommends to develop participatory sexuality education. In health promotion, web-based participatory interventions have a great potential in view of Internet’s popularity among young people.

Objective:

The aim of this review is to describe existing published studies on online participatory interventions methods used to promote adolescents and young adults’ sexual health.

Methods:

We conducted a systematic review based on international scientific and gray literature. We used the PubMed search engine and the AURORE database for the search. Articles were included if they reported studies on participatory intervention, including theme of sexual health, conducted on the internet (website, social media, online gaming system), targeting population aged between 10 and 24 years, with design, implementation and evaluation methods available. The review analyzed for all selected articles the interventions’ content and the study implementation and evaluation methods.

Results:

A total of 60 articles were included describing 37 interventions, several articles being published for the same intervention. Process results are published in many articles (n=40), in contrast to effectiveness results (n=23). Among the 37 interventions, these are often developed on websites (n=20). The second most used media are online social networks (n=13), with Facebook dominating (n=8). Online peer interaction is the participatory component mostly allowed by interventions (n=23), follow by interaction with a professional (n=16). Another participatory components was game-type activity (n=10). Videos were broadcast for more than half interventions (n=20). Forty-three percent of interventions are based on a theoretical model (n=16) - mainly using the Informational Motivational Bevioral model (n=7). The randomized controlled trial is the most widely used study design (n=16). Less than half of the interventions have been evaluated for effectiveness (n=17) and few plan to do so (n=12). Among the outcomes (evaluated or planned to evaluation), sexual behaviors are the most evaluated (n=14), followed by condom use (n=11), and sexual health knowledge (n=8).

Conclusions:

Participatory online interventions for youth sexual health show their feasibility, practical interest and attractiveness, but the effectiveness has not yet been sufficiently evaluated. Online peer interaction, major participatory component, is not sufficiently conceptualized and defined as a determinant of change or theoretical model component. One perspective would be to build a conceptual model integrating online peers interactions/support as model component.