The Efficacy of Social Media for Accessing Sexual and Reproductive Health Information by Youth in Mathare Sub-County, Nairobi: A Case Study of Amref Youth in Action (Y-Act) Programme

Abstract

Tackling Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) challenges facing young people is one of the main development issues for most developing countries. Social media has recently emerged as an increasingly powerful health promotion platform that could help tackle these challenges, but research remains limited on its usefulness and practical applications in SRH interventions. This study therefore explored the efficacy of social media for accessing SRH information among youth in Mathare area of Nairobi using a case study of Y-ACT programme being implemented by AMREF in Kenya. Focusing on the youth in Mathare, Nairobi under the Y-ACT programme, the specific objectives of the study were to analyze their general patterns of social media usage, assess the sources of SRH information they sought and accessed on social media, determine the types of SRH information they frequently interacted with on social media, and examine barriers they faced in accessing SRH information on social media. The study adopted the descriptive survey design and focused on youth in Nairobi enrolled in the AMREF Y-ACT programme, specifically in Mathare area. Stratified sampling followed by simple random sampling were used in selection of study sample of 400 participants. To obtain primary data from the participants, questionnaires were distributed to the youth, and relevant group leaders. Y-ACT programme officials and youth leaders were identified through purposive sampling and interviewed by the researcher. Descriptive statistics was applied to analyse quantitative data, where data was scored by calculating percentages using Microsoft Excel software. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data by understanding, organizing, interpreting, and presenting emerging thematic patterns. According to the findings of the study, social media is increasingly popular channel of communication particularly among youth. Top social media in order of popularity were Google, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Facebook, followed by TikTok, Twitter and Instagram. Telegram was least popular. Additionally, findings from both primary and secondary data in this study highlighted the significant use by the respondents and potential of social media for accessing relevant SRH information, mainly on family planning. User engagement with SRH information as measured by proportionate time spent on each social media platform and varying levels of intensity that reflected both positively - and negatively - valenced social media engagement behaviour was highest on WhatsApp, Google, TikTok, and Instagram followed by Facebook and YouTube and least on Twitter and Telegram, pointing to platforms where SRH information could draw higher, more effective engagement with the study population.