SEXINFO: A Sexual Health Text Messaging Service for San Francisco Youth

SEXINFO is a text messaging service that delivers messages about sexual health. Users can send text "SEXINFO" to a designated number from any wireless phone and receive information on sexually transmitted infections (STIs), HIV and referrals for in-person consultation. San Francisco, CA has been experiencing an increase in STI rates, specifically gonorrhea, adolescents in the past five years. Since cellular phones are in widespread use among adolescents in San Francisco, they are innovative vehicles for delivering targeted information about sexual health to groups at high risk for STIs such as African-American adolescents.

The service functions as follows: the user texts SEXINFO to a 5-digit number; the response to the user is a phone tree with codes instructing them to text a number depending on their concern or complaint; the user is sent a second text with information. No diagnoses are made over the phone; all users are advised to seek care from the appropriate health care provider. The referral services which are recommended to the user were identified through a working group of community organizations, religious groups and health agencies.

The mission of SEXINFO is to provide sexual health information to those at high risk for acquiring STIs in San Francisco, CA.

Four months after the implementation of SEXINFO, a survey was conducted in one of the clinics that the service refers to users; 11% of survey respondents reported that they were aware of SEXINFO. African-American adolescents were more likely to report awareness indicating that the text message service was being appropriately targeted for their intended audience.

Another survey was conducted by Public Health staff at 10 different locations in San Francisco. Among the group of people surveyed, aged 12 to 25, 44% remembered seeing ads for SEXINFO. Similar to the prior survey, 93% of youths who saw the campaign were African American, 77% lived in the target neighborhoods, and 90% had a cell phone. Therefore, within a short time of its inception, SEXINFO was getting the word out about its services and about sexual health to the youth of San Francisco at high risk for STIs and HIV.