Digital Health Literacy and Its Role in Awareness of and Access to Sexual Health Products and Services Among Displaced Youth in Uganda's Informal Urban Settlements: Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Digital health interventions can enhance sexual health equity among marginalized and underserved populations, including displaced youth. However, there is limited understanding of displaced youth's digital health literacy (DHL) and its association with knowledge of and access to sexual health products and services. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to identify patterns of DHL among displaced youth and assess how these patterns are associated with awareness of and access to sexual health products and services, while considering gender differences. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional tablet-assisted survey in Kampala, Uganda. We used peer-driven sampling to recruit displaced youth aged 16-24 years living in 5 informal urban settlements. We identified DHL patterns using latent profile analysis. Gender-disaggregated multivariate probit models were constructed to estimate the relationship between DHL and awareness of and access to sexual health products and services (eg, sexual and reproductive health [SRH] information, external condoms, condom use training, sexually transmitted infection testing, and HIV testing). RESULTS: Among the participants (N=445), our latent profile analysis identified 4-DHL classes named: low (class 1, 51/444, 11.5%), moderate (class 2, 99/444, 22.2%), high (class 3, 138/444, 31%), and very high (class 4, 157/444, 35.3%). Our adjusted multivariate probit model indicated that, compared to class 1, class 4 participants were more likely to know where to access condom use training (marginal effect [ME]=0.23; P