Smart Love Chatbot: Developing an Innovation to Promote Sexual Health Literacy Towards Preventing Teen Pregnancy Behavior in Chanthaburi Province

Abstract

Adolescent pregnancy is a significant public health issue affecting the health, education, and human capital development of a country. Chanthaburi province has a higher adolescent birth rate compared to the national average. This study employed a Research and Development (R&D) design using the Design Thinking approach, aiming to develop, evaluate, and assess user satisfaction with the innovation “Smart Love Chatbot”, which was designed to promote sexual health literacy and pregnancy prevention behaviors among adolescents in Chanthaburi. Participants included nine key informants and 43 Grade 8 students. Research instruments comprised the “Smart Love Chatbot” platform, semi-structured focus group interviews, a sexual health literacy questionnaire addressing adolescent pregnancy prevention behaviors, an innovation evaluation form, and a user satisfaction assessment. Data were analyzed through content organization and synthesis, descriptive statistics, and one-sample mean tests.The findings revealed that the Design Thinking process enabled an in-depth understanding of adolescents’ needs, facilitating the development of an innovation that effectively addresses these requirements. Following the trial, participants demonstrated significant improvements in contraceptive knowledge, sexual health literacy, and pregnancy prevention behaviors (p-value < 0.05). Moreover, 90.7% of participants reported high levels of satisfaction with the chatbot. The results indicate that “Smart Love Chatbot” is effective in enhancing sexual health literacy and promoting pregnancy prevention behaviors, aligns with digital-age learning preferences, and has potential for further development and wider implementation to achieve long-term outcomes. Future applications may broaden usage across regions, integrate live chat, foster sustained engagement, and enhance adolescent health.