Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Date Submitted: Sep 11, 2023
Date Accepted: Jul 21, 2024
Feasibility of Sexual Health and Contraceptive Web Services for Adolescents and Young Adults: A Retrospective Study of a Pilot Program on Reunion Island
ABSTRACT
Background:
Sexual health is the state of physical, mental and social well-being in regard to sexuality and is not only the absence of disease. Access to accurate information as well as sexual health services are vital to maintaining sexual health. Teleconsultations are a promising approach to addressing the sexual health of patients particularly young adults aged between 13 and 25 years who are more prone to adopt risky sexual behaviors. Literature on digital sexual health services for young adults, however, is limited.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to describe the use of sexual health teleconsultation web services on Reunion Island.
Methods:
A descriptive, retrospective experimental study was conducted at the Reunion Island University Hospital Center from December 15, 2021 to September 30, 2022. A web-based platform named SEXTUOZE® was used that provides sexual health services including teleconsultations to young adults. Data on participants characteristics, website traffic, new account creations, scheduled teleconsultation appointments and the number of completed teleconsultations were collected.
Results:
In total, 4,731 sessions were generated on the SEXTUOZE® website with 69 individual accounts created, 22 scheduled and 7 completed teleconsultations. The median age of patients who completed a teleconsultation was 18 years old, and all were female. All completed teleconsultations were via synchronous video communication. Most patients came from the southern region of the island and the median duration of a teleconsultation was 35 minutes. The reasons cited for accessing the web services were to seek sexual health advice (55%), receive an initial birth-control prescription (36%), and to enquire about condom prescriptions (9%).
Conclusions:
The use of teleconsultations for sexual health was low, however, rose at the end of the study. This may suggest that further studies are needed to explore patient satisfaction and better understand the experiences of young adults concerning digitally based sexual health services.
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