Talk with Tiff: teen's inquiries to a sexual health website

Abstract

Because of its availability, anonymity, and low cost of access, the Internet is an increasingly common way for adolescents to find information about sensitive issues. Sexual health website question portals are an important way for adolescents to seek personalized information tailored to their individualized needs. Few studies have examined the content within anonymous e-mails sent to these question portals. The purpose of this qualitative evaluation was to analyze thematic content of anonymous e-mails sent through a question portal on a comprehensive sexual health clinic website for an adolescent family planning clinic in a large city in the southwest United States. Between August 2009 and June 2012, the e-mail server received questions from 484 individuals who were seeking sexual health-related information. The authors used a content analysis to identify recurrent themes in the questions submitted. The most common questions regarded the cost of the clinic's services and testing for sexually transmitted diseases. The questions revealed that adolescents lack basic sexual health knowledge and hold many misconceptions. The findings support the usefulness of online question portals as effective venues for teenagers to quickly and anonymously obtain accurate information on sensitive issues.