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Understanding how young African adults interact with peer-generated sexual health information on Facebook and uncovering strategies for successful organic engagement

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Date
24/11/2021
Author
Olamijuwon, Emmanuel
Clifford, Odimegwu
Adjiwanou, Visseho
Keywords
Sexuality education
Sexual health
Adolescents
Young adults
Social media
Facebook
Content analysis
RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
DAS
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Abstract
Background The use of social media for sexual health communication is gaining intense discussion both globally and in Africa. Despite this reality, it remains unclear whether and how young African adults use digital innovations like social media to access sexual health information. More importantly, the unique properties of messages that increase message reach and propagation are not well understood. This study aims to fill the gaps in scholarship by identifying post features and content associated with greater user engagement. Methods We analyzed a corpus of 3533 sexual and reproductive health messages shared on a public Facebook group by and for young African adults between June 1, 2018, and May 31, 2019, to understand better the unique features associated with higher engagement with peer-generated sexual health education. Facebook posts were independently classified into thematic categories such as topic, strategy, and tone of communication. Results The participants generally engaged with posts superficially by liking (x̃ = 54; x̄ = 109.28; σ = 159.24) rather than leaving comments (x̃ = 10; x̄ = 32.03; σ = 62.65) or sharing (x̃ = 3; x̄ = 11.34; σ = 55.12) the wallposts. Messages with fear [IRR:0.75, 95% CI: 0.66–0.86] or guilt [IRR:0.82, 95% CI: 0.72–0.92] appeals received a significantly lower number of reactions compared to neutral messages. Messages requesting an opinion [IRR:4.25, 95% CI: 3.57–5.10] had a significantly higher number of comments compared to status updates. The use of multimedia and storytelling formats were also significantly associated with a higher level of engagement and propagation of sexual health messages on the group. Conclusion Young adults in our sample tend to superficially interact with peer-communicated sexual health information through likes than engage (comments) or propagate such messages. Message features that increase engagements and propagation of messages include multimedia and engaging styles like storytelling. Our findings provide valuable insight and pave the way for the design of effective and context-specific sexual health information use of features that attract young African adults.
Citation
Olamijuwon , E , Clifford , O & Adjiwanou , V 2021 , ' Understanding how young African adults interact with peer-generated sexual health information on Facebook and uncovering strategies for successful organic engagement ' , BMC Public Health , vol. 21 , 2153 . https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12165-x
Publication
BMC Public Health
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12165-x
ISSN
1471-2458
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © The Author(s). 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Description
EO acknowledges partial funding from the Southern Africa Systems Analysis Centre (SASAC) and the University of the Witwatersrand to support this study which forms part of a graduate thesis on “Advancing Sexual Health Education Strategies for Young African Adults in the Digital Age”.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/24423

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