Web-based institutional health promotion initiatives for young people. The "Chiediloqui" project

Because of its availability, anonymity, and low cost of access, the Internet is an increasingly common way for adolescents to find information about sensitive issues. In the context of web-based institutional initiatives of health promotion for young people, the purpose of this explorative study is to map the principal themes and needs of the young people who write to experts and operators of the portal Chiediloqui.it. Chat and mail tools are available for two health subject groups: “Affectivity and Sexuality” and “Body and Nutrition.” From May of 2012 to December of 2014, the portal received 342,576 visits overall and 2,294 queries in total. The authors used an evaluation form to identify the following: 1) demographic data; 2) communication content (area and sub-themes); and 3) expressed needs. Inside the Affectivity and Sexuality category, the most recurrent issues addressed were STDs (58%), followed by pregnancies, both wanted and unwanted, and sexuality, including topics such as autoerotism, couple sexuality, and sexual disorders. In the Body and Nutrition category, the issues most frequently dealt with were related to eating disorders, including ED NOS, anorexia, and bulimia (66%), followed by body, conceived not only as an issue of aesthetics but most importantly of nutritional intolerance and several somatoform disorders. The findings also show that the chat and mail services may represent alternative channels, for public institutions, to reach young people’s healthcare needs and tools to create a link between young people and health care professionals. It can be stated that an institutional web portal is useful to increase knowledge, to break the cycle of misinformation, to change attitudes, to help build health skills and to promote appropriate healthy lifestyles among adolescents.