Use of the Internet as a source for reproductive health information seeking among adolescent girls in secondary schools in Enugu, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Adolescent female students should be provided opportunities to access reproductive health information to navigate this period of development successfully. Examining the use of the Internet for accessing reproductive health information by this group will provide useful information on their information needs and seeking behaviour.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the use of the Internet for reproductive health information among adolescent female students in secondary schools in Enugu, Nigeria.

METHOD: This descriptive study was conducted on adolescent female students in six secondary schools in Enugu urban. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 120 adolescent female students participated in the study.

FINDINGS: The adolescent female students use the Internet to seek for information on general see education (n = 120, 100%), sexual hygiene (n = 71, 59%), abstinence from premarital sex (n = 68, 57%), avoidance of sexual abuse (n = 67, 56%). Their preference for the Internet include its privacy (n = 115, 96%) and wealth of information (n = 111, 92%).

CONCLUSIONS: Adolescent female students use the Internet to meet their reproductive health information needs. Access to the Internet should be enhanced for this group.