JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Digital health usability assessments can help explain how mHealth applications targeting young people with sexual and reproductive health information performed and whether or not the intended purpose was achieved. Few digital health assessments have however been conducted to evaluate young people’s perceptions regarding mHealth system interactions and content relevance on a wide range of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) topics. Additionally, majority of randomized control trials (RCTs) have focused on push messaging platforms; the mHealth field therefore lacks enough RCTs investigating on-demand mHealth SRH platforms.

Objective:

The objective of our study was to explore young people’s experiences using an on-demand sexual and reproductive health mHealth platform in Kenya.

Methods:

We used qualitative data related to usability of an mHealth (ARMADILLO) platform collected at the end of the intervention period. Thirty (15 females & 15 males) in-depth interviews were held with the intervention participants to elicit their experiences, opinions and perspectives on the ARMADILLO’s design and platform’s content. Study participants were randomly selected from a list of intervention arm participants to participate in the in-depth interviews. Interviews were later transcribed verbatim, translated into English, coded and analyzed thematically using NVivo version 12.

Results:

Respondents reported varied user experiences and levels of satisfaction ranging from ease of use by majority of the respondents to systematic frustrations preventing some participants from progressing to other stages. Interesting mHealth platform’s features included immediate response participants received when requesting messages, weekly remunerated quizzes, educative and informative contents’ and messages’ perceived ‘ability’ to change behaviors. Proposed platform’s enhancements included revising some concepts and words for easy understanding; make the platform interactive where young people can seek clarity when they come across difficult terms or had additional questions about the information received.

Conclusions:

The importance of understanding the range of health literacy and technological variations when dealing with young people cannot be overemphasized. Young people as mHealth end users must be considered throughout intervention development in order to achieve optimum functionality. Additionally, young people targeted with mHealth SRH interventions need to be sensitized on mHealth platform’s interactions or any other digital health applications if implemented in a non-research setting for optimal use by the targeted audience. Clinical Trial: Clinical trial registration: ISRCTN85156148