DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14323389
title: Exploring the Digital Health Landscape: How adolescents living in urban and rural Vanuatu use online platforms to access health information (non-anonymized version)

description: Data from self-report questionnaires on owning a mobile phone, actions performed with a computer and/or a tablet and with a mobile phone and the use of digital media for health. This dataset is the source of Amon et al. 2025.

Participant characteristics: 13 to 20 years old students.

Number of participants: 197.

Year of the study: 2023.

Place of the study: Vanuatu.

The open anonymized dataset can also be found on Wattelez, G., Amon, K., Nedjar-Guerre, A., Forsyth, R., Peralta, L., Urvoy, M.-J., Caillaud, C., & Galy, O. (2025). Exploring the Digital Health Landscape: How adolescents living in urban and rural Vanuatu use online platforms to access health information (anonymized version of the dataset and supplementary tables) (2.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo.
description: Consent

Before the study, parents were informed about the research project and the study through the home liaison diary. They were aware that they could opt out their children from the study. Similarly, each child / adolescent could signal their refusal or opt out himself / herself at any time (i.e. before, during and after the class intervention) simply by indicating it to the research team.

These data were collected during the European Family farming, lifestyle and health in the Pacific (FALAH) project. The project was first approved by the consultative Ethics committee of New Caledonia (2018-06 001 and 2023-10 012) and the Vanuatu Ministry Of Education and Training. The targeted schools were contacted, and the project was then proposed to the administrative (school Principal) and teaching teams for their acceptance.

Data collection

Data were collected from the 7th to 16th June 2023, from 197 school-going adolescents (13 - 20 years old) during class time. In each school, four classes were chosen to respond to the anonymous questionnaire, which consisted of two parts lasting 45 to 50 minutes each and was carried out in two stages. The questionnaires are available in English and French versions.

Translation

Since the visited schools were either English or French, the questionnaire language was chosen according to the language spoken at the school. The questions have been translated. Answers provided by the participants from the French school have been translated according to the questionnaire in English version (see section Data collection). However, answers provided in the open questions have not been translated and were left as they were.

Participant characteristics

Age

Age in months was determined on the day of the research intervention (starting day) from the birth date. Age in years has been determined by rounding off age in months divided by 12. Then, age in years has been categorized into three categories ("Between 14 and 15 inclusive", "Between 16 and 17 inclusive" or "Greater than or equal to 18") providing Age Range.

Place of living

The place of living (rural and urban) was determined according to the school location and the criterion used by the European standard to assess the degree of urbanization [The European Union labour force survey. (2001). Methods and definitions - (Eurostat, Guidelines, Labour statistics, Survey). Accessed November 17, 2017. https://unstats.un.org/unsd/EconStatKB/KnowledgebaseArticle10230.aspx; The European Union Labour Force Survey - Methods and Definitions – 2001. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities (2003)].
description: Description of the file

The data file is a .csv with ";" separator. It contains 44 columns and 198 rows (including the header).

Description of the columns

Participant characteristics

Participant: Participant ID of the studySex: Sex of the participant ("F" for female or "M" for male)Place of living: Place of living according to school location ("Rural" or "Urban")Age in months: Age in months of the adolescent participantAge: Age in years of the adolescent participantAge range: Age range of the adolescent participant ("Lower than or equal to 15", "Between 16 and 17 inclusive" or "Greater than or equal to 18")

Questionnaire

The following columns are the participants' answers to the questionnaire they completed. Whether only a single choice is allowed for the question or whether this is an open question, a column contains the answers. When multiple choices are allowed for the question, a column contains the information if the choice was checked or not: "Checked" or "Unchecked". The answers to the open questions are not translated.

Mobile phone

Do you have a mobile phone?: response to the question ("Yes" or "No")Is this mobile phone yours or do you share it?: response to the question ("Shared" or "Not shared")

Use of devices

When you are on the computer and/or tablet, what type of actions do you most often perform?   (choice=Searching for general information): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on the computer and/or tablet, what type of actions do you most often perform?   (choice=Discussion by email or on the digital social networks with friends or family): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on the computer and/or tablet, what type of actions do you most often perform?   (choice=Watching your social network feed): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on the computer and/or tablet, what type of actions do you most often perform?   (choice=Listening to the music): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on the computer and/or tablet, what type of actions do you most often perform?   (choice=Playing games): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on the computer and/or tablet, what type of actions do you most often perform?   (choice=Study or homeworks): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on the computer and/or tablet, what type of actions do you most often perform?   (choice=Viewing videos): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on the computer and/or tablet, what type of actions do you most often perform?   (choice=Other): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")

When you are on your mobile phone, what type of actions do you perform most often?   (choice=Searching for general information): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on your mobile phone, what type of actions do you perform most often?   (choice=Discussion by email or on the digital social networks with friends or family): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on your mobile phone, what type of actions do you perform most often?   (choice=Watching your social network feed): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on your mobile phone, what type of actions do you perform most often?   (choice=Listening to the music): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on your mobile phone, what type of actions do you perform most often?   (choice=Playing games): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on your mobile phone, what type of actions do you perform most often?   (choice=Study or homeworks): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on your mobile phone, what type of actions do you perform most often?   (choice=Viewing videos): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on your mobile phone, what type of actions do you perform most often?   (choice=Telephone conversation): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")When you are on your mobile phone, what type of actions do you perform most often?   (choice=Other): ticked or not ("Checked" or "Unchecked")

Social media and health

In this part of the questionnaire containing 3 questions, answers were free texts. The answers were categorized into 4, 5 and 6 categories, respectively.

Which social media platform/site is your favourite to use for health? And what do you like about it?: open response textFavourite platform/site for health: social media: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")Favourite platform/site for health: search engine: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")Favourite platform/site for health: unclear: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")Favourite platform/site for health: none: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")For searching health information, which app, social media or website do you use?: open response textFor searching health information: social media: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")For searching health information: search engine: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")For searching health information: web site: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")For searching health information: unclear: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")For searching health information: none: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")For discussing health topics, which app, social media or website do you use?: open response textFor discussing: social media: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")For discussing: search engine: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")For discussing: app: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")For discussing: web site: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")For discussing: unclear: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")For discussing: none: categorization of the response text ("Checked" or "Unchecked")