Mhealth As A Tool for Accessing SRH Among Young People in the Greater-Accra Region of Ghana

Abstract

Background: Innovations and Mobile technologies have become new dimensions and trends for many young people in recent times. The total population of Ghana is gradually on the increase with youth and adolescents being the major. These groups of people are often faced with needs, most especially sexual and reproductive health needs, in the form of information and services. Hence their points of call are usually the clinics and hospitals. However, due to challenges and hindrances such as attitudes of healthcare providers, proximity, and cost, innovative ways of receiving health care were provided with help of mHealth platforms such as the You Must Know app by the Ghana health service (GHS) and many others. Objectives: The study is to assess mHealth as a Tool for SRH access among Young People in the Greater-Accra Region of Ghana Methodology: Across-sectional descriptive design was employed in the study. Following informed consent, a structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-demographic and background characteristics, sources of SRH information, and level of knowledge of mHealth and Challenges to access. The study adopted the quantitative research method utilizing structured questionnaires. Questionnaires were distributed through google forms. Results: This study explored the usage of mobile health applications. Majority representing 108(53.5%) reported that they have never used such applications before. On the other hand, 87(43.1) stated that they have ever used mobile health applications in their life while 7(3.5%) of the respondents did not know if they have ever used the applications or not. Moving forward, respondents were presented with an example of a mobile health application which is known as You Must Know (YMK). From the 202 samples, 65(32.2%) reported that they have heard about the App while 135 (66.8%) stated they haven‘t heard of its existence. On the other hand, about 2 (1.0%) revealed that they do not know whether it exists or not, thus, I don‘t Know. The above shows that there is a lack of sensitization about mHealth Platforms and a majority of people may not be aware of these applications. Additionally, in establishing the user experience of using these mHealth applications or platforms, the research sought to identify respondents' responses on their experience while using these apps. However, a total of 27 (13.4%) of them reported that using the app was quite very easy compared to 34 (16.8%) who claimed it was easy. On the other hand, a total of 2 (1.0%) established the fact that it was quite difficult compared to 1 (0.5%) who reported that it was very difficult. Overall, out of the 202, 138 (68.3%) reported none of the above, stipulating they have no idea whether those apps were difficult to use or not. The study concludes that the majority of the respondents in this study have prior knowledge about mHealth, although not everyone applies usage of it. Those who do, use it effectively in the development of reproductive health and knowledge.