Crush: A randomized trial to evaluate the impact of a mobile health app on adolescent sexual health

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Adolesc Health
• Personal Author:
  Martínez-García, Genevieve ; Olugbade, Yewande ; Ewing, Alexander C. ; DiClemente, Ralph J. ; Kourtis, Athena P.
• Description:
  Purpose:
  
  Mobile technology allows delivery of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information directly to youth. We tested the efficacy of Crush, a mobile application aimed at improving sexual health by promoting the use of SRH services and contraception among female adolescents.
  
  Methods:
  
  We recruited 1,210 women ages 14 to 18 years through social media advertising and randomized them into a Crush intervention group and a control group that received a wellness app. At 3 and 6 months post-randomization, we compared changes from baseline in behaviors, attitudes, self-efficacy, perceived social norms, birth control knowledge, perceived control and use intentions, and SRH service utilization. Odds ratios were estimated with multivariable logistic regression and adjusted for baseline outcome, age, race/ethnicity, mother’s education, and sexual experience.
  
  Results:
  
  There was no difference in accessing SRH services according to study group. Three months post-baseline, Crush users had higher odds (p<0.05) than control participants of reporting confidence in accessing SRH services (aOR= 1.6, 95% CI: 1.1–2.3) and of believing that it is a good thing to use birth control consistently (aOR= 2.3, 95% CI: 1.4–3.8). Six months post-baseline, Crush users had higher odds than control participants of reporting they can control whether birth control is used every time they have sex (aOR= 1.8, 95% CI: 1.2–2.6) and perceiving they would get pregnant if they did not use birth control (aOR: 1.5, 95% CI: 1.1–2.2). Impacts on other behavioral constructs were also found.
  
  Conclusions:
  
  Crush was associated with improvements in knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy related to key SRH behaviors and may be a strategy to deliver SRH education to adolescent women. Studies including larger numbers of sexually active adolescents are needed to demonstrate behavioral impacts.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Contraception Female Humans Mobile Applications Pregnancy Reproductive Health Sex Education Sexual Behavior Sexual Health
• Keywords:
  Mobile App Sexual Health Technology Teen Pregnancy Prevention
• Source:
  J Adolesc Health. 72(2):287-294
• Pubmed ID:
  36424332
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11036548
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  72
• Issue:
  2
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:011b12c6308f978ccfba6a104ef9a5a713a5cf5a97e1bf599a9b546ba5bee6c2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/154827/cdc_154827_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 472.05 KB ]