Cargando…
A Realist-Informed Review of Digital Empowerment Strategies for Adolescents to Improve Their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Well-being
The use of digital technologies for health has been rapidly gaining ground in the last decade, including as a strategy to empower adolescents living in urban resource-constrained settings. Nevertheless, unclarity and incoherence remain regarding which programme strategies generate which outcomes, as...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer US
2022
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9727007/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36070044 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11524-022-00678-8 |
_version_ | 1784844916330856448 |
---|---|
author | Goh, Kunshan Contractor, Sana Van Belle, Sara |
author_facet | Goh, Kunshan Contractor, Sana Van Belle, Sara |
author_sort | Goh, Kunshan |
collection | PubMed |
description | The use of digital technologies for health has been rapidly gaining ground in the last decade, including as a strategy to empower adolescents living in urban resource-constrained settings. Nevertheless, unclarity and incoherence remain regarding which programme strategies generate which outcomes, as well as regarding the importance of context. We set out to answer the question “How do digital empowerment strategies work to improve adolescent health and well-being?”. We conducted a realist-informed review, the first on this subject matter to our knowledge. The realist methodology is geared towards the understanding of socially complex interventions, such as digital empowerment. We synthesized the data into a programme theory uncovering social mechanisms and context conditions underlying specific programme strategies. We found that digital technologies enlarge the space for adolescents to access information to health services on their own terms and provide anonymity, which leads to a sense of safety if access is not curbed by gatekeepers. If adolescents have access to information adapted to their needs, they will be able to make informed decisions, and this will contribute to improved health outcomes because their better understanding enlarges their sense of individual agency. We identified two main gaps in the literature on digital interventions for adolescents. Both are related to an under-theoretisation of the concepts the programmes rely on in implementation: (1) the urban environment the programme has to operate in and its meaning for the adolescents; (2) the socio-developmental stage of the adolescents the programmes work in. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11524-022-00678-8. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9727007 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Springer US |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-97270072022-12-08 A Realist-Informed Review of Digital Empowerment Strategies for Adolescents to Improve Their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Well-being Goh, Kunshan Contractor, Sana Van Belle, Sara J Urban Health Article The use of digital technologies for health has been rapidly gaining ground in the last decade, including as a strategy to empower adolescents living in urban resource-constrained settings. Nevertheless, unclarity and incoherence remain regarding which programme strategies generate which outcomes, as well as regarding the importance of context. We set out to answer the question “How do digital empowerment strategies work to improve adolescent health and well-being?”. We conducted a realist-informed review, the first on this subject matter to our knowledge. The realist methodology is geared towards the understanding of socially complex interventions, such as digital empowerment. We synthesized the data into a programme theory uncovering social mechanisms and context conditions underlying specific programme strategies. We found that digital technologies enlarge the space for adolescents to access information to health services on their own terms and provide anonymity, which leads to a sense of safety if access is not curbed by gatekeepers. If adolescents have access to information adapted to their needs, they will be able to make informed decisions, and this will contribute to improved health outcomes because their better understanding enlarges their sense of individual agency. We identified two main gaps in the literature on digital interventions for adolescents. Both are related to an under-theoretisation of the concepts the programmes rely on in implementation: (1) the urban environment the programme has to operate in and its meaning for the adolescents; (2) the socio-developmental stage of the adolescents the programmes work in. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11524-022-00678-8. Springer US 2022-09-07 2022-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9727007/ /pubmed/36070044 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11524-022-00678-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis 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. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Goh, Kunshan Contractor, Sana Van Belle, Sara A Realist-Informed Review of Digital Empowerment Strategies for Adolescents to Improve Their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Well-being |
title | A Realist-Informed Review of Digital Empowerment Strategies for Adolescents to Improve Their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Well-being |
title_full | A Realist-Informed Review of Digital Empowerment Strategies for Adolescents to Improve Their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Well-being |
title_fullStr | A Realist-Informed Review of Digital Empowerment Strategies for Adolescents to Improve Their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Well-being |
title_full_unstemmed | A Realist-Informed Review of Digital Empowerment Strategies for Adolescents to Improve Their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Well-being |
title_short | A Realist-Informed Review of Digital Empowerment Strategies for Adolescents to Improve Their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Well-being |
title_sort | realist-informed review of digital empowerment strategies for adolescents to improve their sexual and reproductive health and well-being |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9727007/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36070044 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11524-022-00678-8 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT gohkunshan arealistinformedreviewofdigitalempowermentstrategiesforadolescentstoimprovetheirsexualandreproductivehealthandwellbeing AT contractorsana arealistinformedreviewofdigitalempowermentstrategiesforadolescentstoimprovetheirsexualandreproductivehealthandwellbeing AT vanbellesara arealistinformedreviewofdigitalempowermentstrategiesforadolescentstoimprovetheirsexualandreproductivehealthandwellbeing AT gohkunshan realistinformedreviewofdigitalempowermentstrategiesforadolescentstoimprovetheirsexualandreproductivehealthandwellbeing AT contractorsana realistinformedreviewofdigitalempowermentstrategiesforadolescentstoimprovetheirsexualandreproductivehealthandwellbeing AT vanbellesara realistinformedreviewofdigitalempowermentstrategiesforadolescentstoimprovetheirsexualandreproductivehealthandwellbeing |