The Influence of Socio-Economic Status, Education and Religious Affiliation on the Use of Mobile Phones to Access Reproductive Health Services

Abstract

Over the past ten years, mobile devices have become commonplace in the delivery of healthcare.
Mobile phones in healthcare have the potential to save lives every day and improve health
outcomes if they are correctly used and supplied with vital health information. Inadequate
awareness of Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH), including menstruation and methods for
preventing pregnancy, is common among young people. The alternatives for reproductive health
services also appear to be less known. Even though young people must have access to knowledge
about their sexuality, socio-demographic barriers have made it difficult for them to do so. This
study aimed to evaluate the impact of socio-economic status, education, and religious affiliation
on the use of mobile phones to access reproductive health services in Tamale, Ghana. There
were 397 respondents interviewed from the selected communities in the Tamale Metropolis with
a mean age of 18.2 years. In addition, 50.4% of the participants were female while 49.6% were
male, and in terms of education, 34.8% had a junior high school educational level, followed by
senior high school level (31.8%), primary school (14.1%), and university (11.9%) educational
level while 7.3% did not have any academic achievement. The majority were Muslims (82.8%)
while Christians were 17.2%, and most participants lived with their parents. Bivariate analysis
suggests that as people age, there may be a rising tendency in mobile phone use. The p-value
(0.05) at a 95% confidence level indicates that there is a statistically significant relationship
between age and utilizing a mobile phone to access reproductive health services. Additionally,
having the highest level of education is statistically linked to using a cell phone to obtain
reproductive health (p < 0.05). The multicollinearity test was conducted before the multivariate
analysis, and the results showed that age, gender, the highest level of education, and religion
were deemed to have the least multicollinearity and were therefore included in the model. The
results based on model coefficients demonstrated that mobile usage decreases with age, level of
education has no effect on mobile usage, and religion also has a significant impact, as seen by
the considerable difference between the use of mobiles to access the SRH and the socioeconomic status. It is concluded that health education should be taught in schools. Girls, in
particular, should be encouraged by parents and religious institutions to use mobile devices to
explore issues and challenges related to reproductive health. We also encourage further
research on how cultural barriers affect the use of mHealth.
Keywords: Adolescents, Mobile Phones, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Religious, Tamale