Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States.
Department of Veteran Affairs, Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC, United States.
JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2020 Oct 21;8(10):e21454. doi: 10.2196/21454.
In the United States, a disproportionate number of unintended pregnancies occur among African Americans, particularly those in their later teenage years and early 20s. Mobile technology is becoming more ubiquitous as a method for health promotion; however, relatively little research has been done with this population to determine their perspectives about unintended pregnancy, the potential of successfully using mobile technology to prevent unintended pregnancy, and the content of such programs.
The purpose of this study was to obtain the perspectives of African American emerging adults about unintended pregnancy and the use of mobile technology to reduce unintended pregnancy rates.
Focus groups and interviews were conducted with 83 African Americans, aged 18-21 years. Data were analyzed using an open coding process. Emergent codes were then added as needed, and themes and subthemes were identified.
Participants cited the social environment and lack of education as primary reasons for disproportionate rates of unintended pregnancy. They noted that unintended pregnancy is an important issue and that they desire more sexual health information. They enthusiastically supported mobile technology as a means to communicate unintended pregnancy prevention programming and offered many suggestions for program content, look, and feel.
Young and emerging adult African Americans want and need sexual health resources, and a mobile-based platform could be widely accepted and address needs to lower disproportionate rates of unintended pregnancy. An essential next step is to use these findings to inform the development of a mobile-based unintended pregnancy prevention and sexual health program prototype to determine feasibility.
在美国，非裔美国人意外怀孕的比例过高，尤其是在他们十几岁后期和二十出头的时候。移动技术作为一种促进健康的方法变得越来越普及；然而，相对较少的研究是针对这一人群进行的，以确定他们对意外怀孕的看法、成功使用移动技术来预防意外怀孕的潜力，以及此类计划的内容。
本研究的目的是了解非裔美国青年对意外怀孕和使用移动技术来降低意外怀孕率的看法。
对 83 名年龄在 18-21 岁的非裔美国人进行了焦点小组和访谈。使用开放编码过程对数据进行分析。然后根据需要添加新的编码，并确定主题和子主题。
参与者指出社会环境和缺乏教育是非裔美国人意外怀孕比例过高的主要原因。他们指出，意外怀孕是一个重要问题，他们希望获得更多的性健康信息。他们非常支持移动技术作为传播意外怀孕预防计划的手段，并对计划内容、外观和感觉提出了许多建议。
年轻的非裔美国青年和成年人需要性健康资源，基于移动平台的方法可能会被广泛接受，并满足降低意外怀孕比例过高的需求。下一步的关键是利用这些发现来告知基于移动的意外怀孕预防和性健康计划原型的开发，以确定可行性。
