How do young people envision digitization playing a role within a health care system? What needs do they want it to address? How could it best serve them? These are key questions that Devex, working with Fondation Botnar, the Partnership on Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health, PATH, and Women Deliver, set out to ask in order to tap into their thinking ahead of the recent U.N. High-level Meeting on UHC on September 23.
In “Health & Technology: What young people really think,” more than 1,500 young people around the world were asked for their thoughts on the intersection of health care and technology. Although limitations in the methodology mean that the results are not representative of all young people and averages mask the vastly different realities of young individuals around the world, here are the four things we learned that could help better explain young people’s views on health, technology, and youth participation.
Some key findings:
- The cost of health care is a problem for young people.
- In terms of their health, young people are most concerned about their mental health.
- Young people are aware of the government’s role in ensuring health care access and will hold them accountable.
- They want to be involved in the decision-making, and technology can help with that.
