Do young people use technologies to care for their health? And, if they do, what are they looking for? These are the questions that the researchers from the Pfizer Foundation and the Fad Juventud Foundation have asked themselves and the answers are clear: yes, they know them and use them (almost 80%), especially to count steps, control the exercise they perform, track the menstrual cycle and keep a diet record. The most searched topics on the internet and social networks are those related to “physical activity” (40.3%), “mental health” (35%) and “food and diets” (34.3%).
Young people are concerned about their physical health and well-being and less about illness, something logical at the ages between 15 and 29. Although this does not prevent them from using technology to “search for symptoms in case they are not feeling well to know what is happening” (69.9%) and “seek information about a health problem of someone in the environment” (67.1%).
Do you trust these applications and the consultation websites? Relatively, since what gives them the most confidence (7 out of 10) is the information related to health provided by health professionals, rather than what is generally offered on the internet and on social networks. And in these, they value better those provided by websites endorsed by scientific institutions and societies (6.2). 65% follow accounts related to health and well-being and around 52% follow accounts or profiles of health professionals or specialists.
This is indicated in the study “Technological innovation applied to health care. The perspective of adolescents and young people”, with the results obtained in a survey carried out with 1,504 young people between 15 and 29 years old, between May and June of this year 2023, and interviews and workshops with experts in technology and health, and in which It is revealed that the widespread use of technology for this purpose corresponds to the importance they give to health in their lives. Having good health is what they value most at this stage of life (60.2%), above earning money (46.3%) or having good family relationships (35.31%). Women give it greater importance and, by age group, those in the 25-29 age group.
But young people ask for more. Of the innovations or improvements proposed in health, first of all, they consider that “the improvement of mobile integration in the health system” would be an important advance with 39.6% of the responses. Along the same lines, 37.7% consider that it would be an important advance to “guarantee quality online and telematic healthcare.
They do use technology for health management. The activity they carry out the most is “requesting online appointments”, with 72.5% implementation; 57.2% access “personal online health files”; and 48.7% use “telematic consultations”, either through video calls, chats or telephone consultations.
Young people are not looking for a replacement of the health system with digital technologies, but rather they are looking for the best of both worlds. By focusing on future scenarios related to technological innovation and their health in which they have to value greater or lesser comfort, information, equality and humanization, they believe that we are moving towards an improvement in healthcare in general with an average of 3.42 out of 5 .
For the president of the Fad Juventud Foundation Ignacio Bayón, “the importance given to health by young people, together with the generational seal of technology in their lives, tells us about opportunities for the prevention of health problems and for the promotion of healthy lifestyle habits in young people. We know that they care about taking care of themselves and that technology helps them do so.”
