Co-designing a Sexual Health App With Immigrant Adolescents: Protocol for a Qualitative Community-Based Participatory...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Adolescent Health
• Digital Health

Background:

• Canada has a large immigrant population, including adolescents (10-19 years).
• Cultural and religious factors influence immigrant adolescents' sexual attitudes and reproductive health (SRH) service use.
• There's a significant gap in research on SRH needs and knowledge among immigrant adolescents in Canada.

Purpose of the Study:

• To co-design and evaluate a mobile health (mHealth) intervention for immigrant adolescents in Canada.
• To deliver accurate, evidence-based sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information via a mobile application.
• To improve SRH knowledge and outcomes for immigrant youth.

Main Methods:

• Community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) approach.
• Four-stage user-centered co-design: Empathize, Define/Ideate, Prototype, Test.
• Involvement of adolescent advisory groups as coresearchers, focus groups for needs assessment and app feedback.

Main Results:

• Adolescent advisory groups and focus groups will inform app development.
• A co-designed mHealth app will be developed and iteratively refined.
• App expected for release in Spring 2024.

Conclusions:

• The study addresses critical gaps in SRH knowledge and services for immigrant adolescents.
• Participatory action research enhances engagement in SRH decision-making and care utilization.
• The developed mHealth app offers a scalable and transferable solution for improving adolescent SRH outcomes globally.