Mobile phone ownership among young adults in seven Southern African countries

In sub-Saharan Africa, mHealth interventions and phone-based data collection are increasingly popular but little is known about who can be reached by these programmes. We used national probability surveys to examine characteristics of youth (15-24 years) mobile phone owners in seven Southern African countries: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Population-based HIV Impact Assessment surveys are cross-sectional, nationally representative household-based surveys conducted between November 2019 and February 2022. Data were analysed using multivariable logistic regression.

Eighty-four percent of youth in Eswatini, 83% in Botswana, 76% in Lesotho, 61% in Zimbabwe, 47% in Mozambique, 46% in Zambia and 32% in Malawi were mobile phone owners. In all countries, odds of phone ownership were higher amongst persons ages 20-24 (compared to 15-19) and those with secondary education or higher. In the three countries with ownership less than 50%, women had lower odds of owning a phone than men, and all wealth quintiles had higher odds of ownership than the lowest wealth quintile.

Mobile phone ownership was consistently higher among certain demographic groups. Public health practitioners employing mobile phones for youth health programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa may not reach the general youth population.