Youth, and in particular young African Americans, are at an alarmingly high risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STD). The Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than 25%, or 3.2 million teenage girls in the U.S. have at least one STD, with the highest prevalence is among African American teen girls, 48% of which have at least one STD.
Where can youth go for accurate health information? With 85 percent of San Francisco's youth owning a cell phone , providing health resources and STD-prevention information via cell phone simply makes sense. Through mobile technology, health care advocates can reach youth with the technology they use most often, and for youth text messaging is confidential and easy.
SexINFO is an innovative text messaging pilot public health program that allows youth to access health information via their wireless device. By providing basic health facts along with contact information for health care clinics, SexINFO aims to decrease rates of STD transmission among at-risk urban youth. By texting "sexinfo" to 61827, youth can interface with a helpful set of answers to key questions about safer sex, HIV, STDs and pregnancy.
Launched in 2006, San Francisco's SexINFO program is the first program of its kind in the U.S. This pilot has the potential to influence the way public health advocates throughout the country connect at-risk youth to health care services.
SexINFO was designed by health educators at I.S.I.S., Inc. with funding from the San Francisco Department of Public Health's (SFDPH) STD Prevention and Control division, and programmed by Hip Cricket.
...Anand Varadaraja
Sources:
Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use (PDF), Sheila Kinkade and Katrin Verclas, UN Foundation–Vodafone Group Foundation Partnership, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment