Online Sexual Health Services: Examining Youth's Perspectives (Qualitative Research) (Report‪)‬

Youth ages 15-24 account for a disproportionate amount of the sexually transmitted infections (STI) in British Columbia, particularly with regard to chlamydia and gonorrhoea for which rates are high and rising. (1) Accordingly, there are strong public health (and personal) imperatives to develop new approaches to engage sexually active youth in routine STI/HIV testing practices. (2-4) Unfortunately, youth participation in STI/HIV testing remains a public health challenge. (2-7) As a result, public health interventions have increasingly turned towards new media such as the Internet to reach populations at risk for STIs/HIV, such as through educational websites, online counselling and/or social networking websites. (8-13) Online STI/HIV testing services (i.e., online risk self-assessment with access to self-collection kits or downloadable laboratory requisition forms) (14) are a promising new approach for improving access to testing, and have proven to be a feasible method for reaching youth and identifying positive STI cases (e.g., Ottawa Public Health's newly launched website, Get Tested--Why not?). However, online sexual health intervention approaches are relatively new in Canada and have received little research attention especially in terms of youth's perspectives on their readiness to engage with online sexual health services. Thus, the current study was undertaken to examine youth's perspectives on: online STI/HIV testing services and online counselling and education services (e.g., online sexual health counselling through chat, forums, or e-mail; referrals to other services). METHODS