Exploring the Digital Health Landscape: How adolescents living in urban and rural Vanuatu use online platforms to access health information

<ns3:p>Background Investigating the use of online platforms by adolescents living in the Pacific Islands is important to understand how they navigate online resources to make informed decisions about their health. This study explores the use of online platforms, by adolescents in Vanuatu for health-related purposes. Methods A total of 197 students (58% from an urban school and 42% from a rural school) completed a survey which collected quantitative and qualitative data about their use of digital technologies for health. Results Results show that 77% of participants owned a mobile phone, which was mostly used to listen to music (34%) and play games (22%). Only 24% (n= 47) reported to have used apps, social media or websites for their health. Social media was the preferred category to use for health information, among both urban (25%) and rural (11%) participants, with Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter being the most frequently mentioned platforms. Reasons included, to gain knowledge, watch videos, chat with friends and look at posts. To search for health information, social media was more commonly used by rural students (12%) compared to urban students (8%). Conversely, search engines were more popular among urban students (12%) than rural students (5%). For discussing health topics online, social media was the predominant platform in both urban (10%) and rural (9%) areas. Conclusions While reports often suggest a digital divide between urban and rural areas, results from our study challenge this with our findings showing similarities in the use of online platforms for health information between urban and rural adolescents in Vanuatu. Our paper considers the influencing factors of social media use for health-related purposes, reflects on cultural sensitivity, identifies the risks of misinformation and regards the role of policy and education as essential for effectively engaging this population with digital health tools, to promote positive health outcomes.</ns3:p>