Dr Foster Intelligence

• Home
• Products
• Services
• News
• Publications
• Success
• About us
• Contact us

In this section:

• Our services
  • Bespoke analytics
  • Research and consultation
  • Social marketing
  • Examples of our work

Sexual health

When it comes to health messages, teenagers are an especially difficult group to target. Today’s high rates of unplanned pregnancy and the prevalence of STIs mean it’s essential they understand the risks they face.

Britain has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Europe. This, coupled with the other often damaging consequences of early and unprotected sex, presents a significant cost to society.

Dr Foster Intelligence has a unique insight into the problem, gained from in-depth research and past experience of creating innovative campaigns to engage with the target audience. With easier access to the information and sexual health services they need, we can help this at-risk group to make choices that are right for them.

NHS Choices Humber

The challenge

The NHS Choices online team wanted to create and promote a ‘micro-site’ to present sexual health messages in an innovative way. The target was hard-to-reach audiences, such as young men who traditionally didn’t access mainstream health services.

The main concept was to personalise and localise sexual health messages in the pilot area of Hull, in order to reduce rates of STIs and unplanned pregnancy. The area was selected as it had the second highest rate of chlamydia and the ninth highest rate of teenage pregnancy in England.

The safe sex campaign was designed to help achieve the national chlamydia screening target for 2007-08 and promote the need to reach the increased target for 2008-09.

What we did

Local service users and the voluntary sector were included in a multi-agency approach. Encouraging stakeholder engagement ensured that all interested parties were involved.

The social marketing team at Dr Foster Intelligence developed marketing tools and promotional activities to suit the target audience, including interactive technology through an internet site, bluetooth animation and an SMS text service. The campaign also involved posters, a series of radio ads, and video clips (of local young people and health professionals talking about relevant issues).

We went to places popular with young people to deliver messages about sexual health. For example, we used bluetooth in nightclubs, youth clubs and colleges.

Other elements of the campaign included a questionnaire and street-level distribution of sexual health information. We also promoted chlamydia screening outside health clinics.

The outcome

During the course of the Humber campaign more people used the local sexual health services and took up chlamydia screening. The initiative resulted in more than 5,000 hits to the Humber web page on the NHS Choices site. Moreover, bluetooth analysis suggested that on average recipients forwarded the animation to at least five friends.

A total of 900 questionnaires were completed and returned. These revealed the target audience’s responses to sexual health messages and local services, thereby helping to inform the development of these services in the future.

Other work on teenage sexual health

NHS Blackpool

In February 2008 NHS Blackpool commissioned Dr Foster Intelligence to help it develop a social marketing strategy to improve public health in the area, with a particular focus on six issues, one being teenage pregnancy and sexual health.

We used a vast range of data sources to help identify the target audience and key locations. Health Needs Mapping showed that the whole PCT area had postcodes where the likelihood of teenage pregnancy was higher than average.

Using deliberative events, we investigated teenagers’ attitudes towards sexual health, the risks involved, what they thought the PCT could do to help, and the most appropriate types of advertising and information.

Work such as this helps to ensure that long-term strategies are both targeted and evidence-based.

NHS Wandsworth

As part of a wider ranging project analysing general risky behaviour, Dr Foster Intelligence used Target Group Index (TGI) lifestyle analysis to investigate sexual health for NHS Wandsworth.

Wandsworth has pockets of high deprivation within areas where residents earn well above the national average. The challenge when communicating to a diverse population, especially on a subject such as sexual health, is to personalise the risks and produce targeted messages to specific segments.

We found that younger, often single people were broadly dispersed throughout the area. Therefore sexual health needed to be approached as a borough-wide initiative. The PCT knew it had to engage with the young BME male community, who were most at risk from STIs.

Our research findings showed that this group lacked awareness about contraception and its effectiveness. Nor did they know much about STIs (including prevention and treatment). Alcohol, drugs and peer pressure were also key factors that influenced their risky behaviour.

Focus group respondents said that improving access to local health services, employing young, friendly staff in a central location and providing up-to-date information would all encourage greater uptake of services.