Abstract
Sexual health among older adults and people with chronic diseases is central for the wellbeing and quality of life, but not adequately addressed because interventions target other user groups (e.g., adolescents), because of lack of adherence to sexual health promotion programmes or because people do not seek sexual health support.
Project Anathema is an European project which intends to build the first smartphone-based sexual health promotion programme for older adults, stroke survivors and people with colorectal cancer, available in four languages (English, Portuguese, German and Dutch), which will seek to increase access of these user groups to sexual health support and increase adherence to programs through engaging user experiences.
In order to inform the design of the sexual health intervention programme and respective smartphone application, Anathema will engage the three target populations – older adults, stroke survivors and colorectal cancer patients – in user research through focus groups, interviews and questionnaires, followed by co-design sessions, usability tests and three pilot randomised controlled trials to determine the acceptability, feasibility and efficacy of the developed solution.
If successful, the smartphone application will be commercialised by two companies in the project consortium – in one case as modules in an existing online psychology platform and, in another, as a standalone app. The smartphone application will remain available for use free of charge to academic, medical, and patient associations associated with the project.
