PUBLI : Johann Cailhol, Sabah Jaroof, « Design of a bilingual (FR-UR) website on the sensitive topic of sexual and mental health with Urdu speakers in a Parisian suburb : a qualitative study », BMC Public Health, 17 april 2024

Abstract. This article is a conti­nua­tion of the Musafir study publi­shed in 2020. Follo­wing the results of this study, we desi­gned an educa­tional website with Urdu-spea­king volun­teers, using a parti­ci­pa­tory approach. This type of approach aimed at brin­ging out situated know­ledge around taboo/​sensitive topics such as sexual and mental health, by consi­de­ring the cultural, reli­gious, economic, family, and social back­ground of young Urdu-spea­king men. This approach allowed us to build cultu­rally-appro­priate content matching the needs of targeted popu­la­tion. We report here the lessons learned from our approach. Urdu-spea­king volun­teers were recruited via outreach stra­te­gies, for parti­ci­pa­tion in focus groups. Four focus group discus­sions were conducted on three distinct themes : 1/​Sexual Health Promo­tion, 2/​Hepatitis and sexually trans­mitted infec­tions, and 3/​Mental Health. The focus groups were recorded, with the written consent of the users. Thematic analysis was conducted after trans­crip­tion of the focus-group discus­sion. We succeeded in mobi­li­zing 4 Pakis­tani users, aged between 19 and 30 years. The group dyna­mics was very rich and allowed us to high­light nume­rous social aspects related to the impor­tance of the group belon­ging, the family, and others points of view on these topics. Many Urdu voca­bu­lary had to be rede­fined and revealed the extent of the pre-exis­ting taboo. Notwiths­tan­ding the extreme diffi­culty of mobi­li­zing an invi­sible target popu­la­tion on a sensi­tive topic such as sexual and mental health, our expe­rience high­lights the need to consider the know­ledge of the people concerned. The parti­ci­pa­tive approach allowed us to fit the content of our medium to, for instance : the collec­ti­vist type of society of the target popu­la­tion ; the level of lite­racy in their mother tongue ; and to the embo­di­ment of some taboo in their voca­bu­lary. Although time and energy consu­ming, our approach seems rele­vant and could be repli­cated to other communities.

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