Ruth Buzi of the Baylor College of Medicine Teen Health Clinic higlights an array of social media strategies used to enhance health promotion among youth and young adults. Presented at YTH Live 2014 session "The Strength of Social Media."

1. USING SOCIAL AND MOBILE MEDIA TO
REACH TEENS
Ruth S. Buzi
Peggy, B. Smith
Baylor College of Medicine
Teen Health Clinic
Houston, Texas

2. PRESENTATION OBJECTIVES
 1. Review interactive and electronic
venues (mobile, social media, Internet) for
client interaction and for promoting sexual
health
 2. Discuss the effectiveness of new
technology used in patient education and
communication

3. CLINICS’ MISSION
A system of 9 school, community, and hospital
clinics in Houston
 Provide quality adolescent health care services
that are equal or better than the private sector
 Educate and train health care professionals
 Evaluate all programs

4. POPULATION SERVED
 Female and male adolescents ages 13-23
years (males can be seen up to 25 and at any
age as partners)
 Majority are low-income
 Majority are African-American (50%) or
Hispanic (45%)
 A total of 10,000 unduplicated patients are
served annually
 82% females and 18% males

5. COMPREHENSIVE CLINIC SERVICES
 Family planning including STD screening and
treatment
 Prenatal care using the Centering Pregnancy
Model
 Primary care
 Individual counseling and crisis intervention
 Sports physicals
 Educational and employment services for young
fathers
 Routine Opt Out HIV Testing

6. THE PROBLEM
 In 2011, 286 youth (people age 13 to 24) were
diagnosed with HIV in Houston/Harris County.
 This equates to 22.8% of all new HIV diagnoses
in Houston/Harris County in that year.
 Larger proportions of newly diagnosed youth
were (1) African American (64.7% v. 52.1%)
and (2) MSM (73.4% v. 60.8%).

7. WHY SOCIAL MEDIA?
 Complement traditional communication
 Share information in new spaces
 Connect with new audiences
 Encourage engagement and interaction with
the content
 Empower people to make healthier and safer
decisions

8. TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS- GOALS
 Encourage teens to modify their sexual
risk behaviors, increase clinic utilization,
reduce STI and pregnancy, and promote
positive health behaviors.

9. CLINIC TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS
 Upgraded Website (teenhealthclinic.org)
 Social Networking Sites Presence (Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat)
 Short Message Service that send out weekly
health education messages
 Web-based and Apps Outreach (Adam4Adam,
Grindr, Craigslist, Jack'D)
 Community awareness - 6th Annual Technology
Conference-June 10, 11, 2014

10. CLINIC TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS (CONT.)
 Tiff and Ty are avatars used to communicate
with website visitors who can email questions
and receive a response within 24 hours
 Online videos integrating health messages into
age-appropriate scripts based on various
behavioral change theories
 Short films created by young people
communicating messages about HIV
prevention

11. WEBSITE AND SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

12. SMS
 About 800 receive weekly messages
Examples:
 Today is World’s AIDS Day. Please join us in the
fight against HIV/AIDS and continue to work
towards an AIDS-free generation. Tiff Teen Clinic
 October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a
time to build awareness towards safe and healthy
relationships for all individuals. Tiff Teen Clinic

13. SMS EVALUATION
 Focus groups were held with SMS recipients
 Participants indicated that the service is beneficial
and promotes awareness among teens about
healthy sexual behaviors.
 Recipients were also asked to send in their
feedback about the service via SMS.
 Example: “They are very useful. I take them into
consideration and share them with my family and
friends and use it in my everyday life.

14. ASK TIFF
 Online portal for anonymous questions
provides a way for teens receive immediate,
accurate advice without the risk of
embarrassment or rejection.
 Electronic platforms also serve as a means for
teens to engage in open dialogue about sexual
issues in a non-threatening manner.
 Responses of 626 users who contacted the
clinic via email were analyzed

15. THEMATIC ANALYSIS ASK TIFF
 Concerns about cost of the clinic’s services and
testing for sexually transmitted infections.
 Questions revealed lack basic sexual health
knowledge and many common misconceptions.
 Online question portals are effective venues for
teens to quickly and anonymously obtain
accurate information on sensitive issues.

16. WEB-BASED AND APPS OUTREACH
 Total of 148 individuals contacted on Grindr in
September, 17 total responses, a rate of 11.49%
AA, 12, 8%
White, 41,
28%
Latino, 68,
46%
Asian, 8,
5%
Mix/other,
19, 13%
Race/Ethnict Breakdown of Individuals
Contacted
AA
White
Latino
Asian
Mix/other
AA, 1, 6%
White, 5,
29%
Latino, 9,
53%
Asian, 0, 0%
Mix/other,
2, 12%
Response to message
AA
White
Latino
Asian
Mix/other

17. SHORT FILMS CONTEST
 Organized a media contest, encouraging
patients and youth in the community to script
short films to educate young people about HIV
prevention and testing.
 The first prize winner, Voices for Victory Over
HIV, is based on texts received from our SMS
recipients who were asked to share messages
for HIV prevention.

18. YOUTH VOICES

19. SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS
 Community Building
 Engaging Audiences
 Increasing Reach
 General Awareness, Promotion
 Creating a buzz

20. CONCLUSIONS
 Web-based outreach can encourage larger
populations to get tested for HIV and receive
prevention messages
 Engaging young people in disseminating messages
about HIV prevention through social media can be
effective in reinforcing prevention messages
 The number of HIV cases have increased following
the implementation of the media campaign.

21. THANKS
 Support for this work was provided by the
following:
 The Spirit Golf Association
 FOCUS, Gilead Sciences Inc.

22. PLEASE VISIT US
 www.teenhealthclinic.org
 Dr. Ruth Buzi: rbuzi@bcm.edu
 Dr. Peggy Smith: peggys@bcm.edu