{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03859202714164546, 'fraction_numerical': 0.028413910093299407, 'mean_word_length': 4.173245614035087, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 3, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 1, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Adolescents’ use of an online question-answer service to gain health knowledge


 
 
 Adolescents prefer to collect information online. However, research has also shown than adolescents lack competency in googling information. Furthermore, boys are less likely than girls to seek help and to discuss their problems. Hence, an online information and question-answer (QA) service staffed by professionals, like ung.no, may provide what adolescents desire. The ung.no QA service is open to ages 13-20, and all questions and answers are publicly available in a searchable database.
 The aim of the present study is to investigate who the users of the ung.no QA-service are and what their main concerns are.
 
 
 
 Data consisted of all questions posted to ung.no 2016-2018. Descriptive analyses were performed using categorization of questions established by ung.no.
 
 
 
 The data consisted of N = 128 289 questions. Overall 68.5% of questions were posted by girls (p < 0.01). The gender option ’other’ was chosen by 1.7%. Younger adolescents aged 13-16 posted 66.1% of the questions (p < 0.01). The age imbalance was most pronounced among girls. The age distribution suggests that users <13 and >20 present themselves as 13- and 20-year olds respectively. Three categories contained 80% of questions, these concerned: body and health (48.1%); school and education; and friends and love. While 52.4% of girls’ questions concerned body and health, boys’ questions were more evenly distributed among categories. Boys had, relatively, more questions regarding laws and rights, intoxicating substances and school, education and work.
 
 
 
 Analyses reveal that 7 out of 10 users of the ung.no QA service are girls, and that the main area of concern is body and health. Results indicate a need for this QA service for wider age-range. The outreach of the ung.no QA service is universal, and hence has great potential public health impact. The results call for action identifying ways to reach boys and in turn efface gender inequality in help seeking behaviour and improve public health.
 
 
 
 Seven out of 10 users of a public digital QA service for adolescents ages 13-20 are girls, and seven out of 10 are in the youngest age group 13-16. The main areas of concern posted to a public digital QA service are regarding body and health, and school and education.
