1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
Health Educ Behav. 2018 Aug;45(4):581-590. doi: 10.1177/1090198117749259. Epub 2017 Dec 28.
Mobile applications ("apps") designed for sexual health education have the potential to reach teens and young adults that are hard to reach through traditional platforms; however, little is known about availability of these apps and their adherence to existing guidelines. Following a search on the two major app stores, data from 2,693 apps were analyzed. Only 697 (25%) addressed sexual health, and only 15 (1%) of apps met inclusion criteria for comprehensive programs and their content was further analyzed. The content of most of these apps narrowly focused on sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy prevention and lacked information on puberty, sexual identity, and personal safety. Theoretically grounded strategies including self-efficacy and modeling behavior to strengthen behavior change efforts were largely absent. Last, we identified significant shortcomings in the literate design of these apps, including limited use of interactive features, such as videos, quizzes, or games. These findings indicate that the potential of apps as sexual health promotion tools has not yet been fully realized. We outline recommendations for developing theory- and evidence-based sexual education apps and provide suggestions for health educators on how to select relevant apps when working for youth.
移动应用程序（“apps”）在性健康教育方面具有很大的潜力，可以接触到传统平台难以触及的青少年和年轻人；然而，关于这些应用程序的可用性及其是否符合现有指南的信息知之甚少。在对两个主要的应用商店进行搜索后，分析了 2693 个应用程序的数据。只有 697 个（25%）涉及性健康，只有 15 个（1%）的应用程序符合综合项目的纳入标准，其内容进一步进行了分析。这些应用程序的内容主要集中在性传播感染和妊娠预防上，缺乏关于青春期、性身份和个人安全的信息。理论上的策略，包括自我效能和行为模仿，以加强行为改变的努力，在很大程度上是缺失的。最后，我们发现这些应用程序在文字设计上存在明显的缺陷，包括有限使用视频、测验或游戏等互动功能。这些发现表明，应用程序作为性健康促进工具的潜力尚未得到充分发挥。我们概述了开发基于理论和证据的性教育应用程序的建议，并为健康教育工作者提供了一些建议，以便在为年轻人工作时选择相关的应用程序。
