Mobile phone ownership among young adults in seven Southern African countries.

Background: In sub-Saharan Africa, mHealth interventions and phone-based data collection are increasingly popular but little is known about who can be reached by these programmes. We used national probability surveys to examine characteristics of youth (15-24 years) mobile phone owners in seven Southern African countries: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Methods: Population-based HIV Impact Assessment surveys are cross-sectional, nationally representative household-based surveys conducted between November 2019 and February 2022. Data were analysed using multivariable logistic regression.

Results: Eighty-four percent of youth in Eswatini, 83% in Botswana, 76% in Lesotho, 61% in Zimbabwe, 47% in Mozambique, 46% in Zambia and 32% in Malawi were mobile phone owners. In all countries, odds of phone ownership were higher amongst persons ages 20-24 (compared to 15-19) and those with secondary education or higher. In the three countries with ownership less than 50%, women had lower odds of owning a phone than men, and all wealth quintiles had higher odds of ownership than the lowest wealth quintile.

Conclusions: Mobile phone ownership was consistently higher among certain demographic groups. Public health practitioners employing mobile phones for youth health programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa may not reach the general youth population.