Mobile Health Supported Self-care Among Tertiary Education Students in Zimbabwe

Young people of ages 15-24 years, particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa, do not optimally take up HIV services (HIV testing, HIV prevention and HIV treatment) and contraception. The number of new HIV infections in this group is disturbingly high and they suffer a lot of illness and death related to HIV. Research has found that four out of five sexually active adolescents in Africa are not using contraception. This means that millions of young people are exposed to unintended pregnancy and the associated negative effects such as unsafe abortions, school drop-out and reduced opportunities for both mother and baby. World Health Organisation have issued new guidelines for a new strategy, self-care, where an individual takes care of their own health and manages their illness with or without the support of a health worker. Self-care has potential to increase the number of young people who use HIV and contraception services. There is not enough information on how self-care can be done in a way that supports people to use services and maintain this use over time. Self-care can be made easier by mobile phone-based digital systems called mHealth, which may work by supporting access of services, for example where products are ordered online, or creating enabling conditions for self-care, for example through facilitating correct information-giving. With various options for HIV prevention and contraception available, young people may need support/guidance choosing options that suit them. Health workers in overburdened health systems may be too overwhelmed to clearly present all options to guide informed decisions. Decision aids (tools that support patients/users to make informed choices that suit their values and preferences) can enhance self-care by enabling informed decisions. Decision aids for HIV prevention and contraception need to be developed for use in self-care settings. Combining decision aids with mHealth tools can enhance self-care. This study will be co-developed with students enrolled in colleges/universities in Zimbabwe to develop a self-care strategy that includes mHealth together with decision aids and enables students to optimally use HIV and contraception services. The study is divided into five stages, and builds on another study where a self-care strategy supported by an mHealth tool (without decision aids) was developed. In the first stage of the current study, preferences for decision aids and attributes to include in the mHealth tool will be obtained using qualitative research and a scoping literature review. In the second stage, findings from the first stage will be used to develop blueprints for two decision aids: one for contraception and the other for HIV prevention. In the third stage, the decision aids will be integrated with the existing mHealth tool through a crowdsourcing activity including students, and experts in health and mHealth. In the fourth stage the self-care strategy supported by mHealth and decision aids will be tested in a pilot at 2 colleges/universities. Finally, the fifth stage be a randomised control trial, across college/universities in Zimbabwe, to see whether the self-care strategy supported by mHealth and decision aids will be effective to promote self-care, and therefore, results in an increase in the uptake of HIV and contraception services. This study will also be applied to make recommendations on how the strategy can be provided outside of college/university contexts.