Smartphone app improves sexual health education in teen girls

Teenagers dread the idea of having "the talk" with their parents. Now, thanks to a new application, discussions of sexual health can take place on a platform adolescents won’t mind using. Researchers have developed Girl Talk, an app that delivers information on sexual health to teen girls to boost knowledge and encourage healthy sexual practices.

Led by Lynae M. Brayboy, MD, reproductive endocrinologist at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, the study examined if a smartphone application could better teach adolescent girls about their sexual health than conventional methods.

Conventional methods of sexual health education in America often focuses on abstinence rather than teaching protocols about safe sex. This study of the Girl Talk app focused on increases the knowledge adolescent girl had on sexual health and offering a more desired route of education through the smartphones they use every day.

The study was conducted on 39 girls ages between 12 and 17 years old and was broken down into two phases. Phase 1 had 22 girls complete a sexual health questionnaire, and Phase 2 had 17 girls receive the questionnaire before and after use of the smartphone app that they used for two weeks as well as being asked feedback questions regarding use of the app.

The group using the Girl Talk app reported using the app an average of 32 minutes a day on average, 48 minutes on weekends and for a total of 7.5 hours over the course of the study. After using the app, 94.1 percent of users stated it was a useful tool for sexual education, a jump from 35.3 percent baseline taken before the study. Other results included:

• Anatomy and physiology knowledge increased 4.2 percent.
• Sexuality and relationship knowledge increased 3.5 percent.
• Knowledge about STI prevention increased 3.4 percent.
• Knowledge about how to prevent pregnancy increased 3.8 percent.
• 94.1 percent of participants said the app provided new information and more detailed sexual education then they had received in the classroom.
• 93 percent would recommend the app to a friend.
• Following the study, participants who had used the app scored higher on the follow-up survey by 2.7 percent.

Brayboy said the next step for her team is further studies to see if Girl Talk can increase contraception use and decease STIs and unplanned pregnancies.