This section highlights some examples of the impact of health communication programs from different countries in the region. Also, see a presentation on Measuring the Impact of Communication in Public Health Programs.
Measuring the impact of media on governance outcomes
Over 26 millionBangladeshis haveused at least one of our English in Actionlearning products. 20 million people have watched the learning programme Mojay Mojay Shekha. 3.9 million people have dialled a mobile phone number to access an English lesson, with 0.6 million accessing more than 5 lessons.
Presenting the evidence for HIV Communication
Between the calls for access to treatment and biomedical prevention that we all support, social and behavioural prevention in South Africa is quietly doing what it is supposed to do and that is contributing towards the uptake of HIV prevention behaviours, averting and/or delaying new HIV infections and saving the country billions in future treatment costs.
Rural Communication Activities Increase Net Use in Tanzania - 2010
COMMIT program integrates mass media and community-based activities to increase individual’s perceptions of the threat posed by malaria as well as their confidence in their ability to take actions that effectively counter this threat. Initial survey data was collected from Lindi and Mtwara, in 2009, one year following the start of the community-based activities. Individuals exposed to community-level activities had greater perceptions of the threat of malaria and were more confident in their ability to obtain and use ITNs.
Effect of Communication on HIV Prevention and living with HIV/AIDS -2009
An important point gets lost in many discussions of HIV prevention: only ARV drugs and vaccines (when and if they become available) can affect the virus that causes AIDS. However, even treatment or other service delivery interventions can only be effective if people seek and use services and adhere to treatments. In other words, service interventions like all prevention efforts depend on behavior change and behavior change depends on communication.
Motivating Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancies- Jordan, Egypt and Uganda- 2008
Today, more than a quarter of the world’s population is between the ages of 10 and 25. Hence, there is a demographic imperative to motivate this generation to adopt healthy childbearing habits—including healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies. Find out how health communication approaches can help change community norms and promote birth spacing.
Case Study: AIDS Communication Programmes, HIV Prevention, and Living with HIV and AIDS in South Africa - 2006
In 2005, about 5.5 million people in South Africa were estimated to be living with HIV. Although it appears that the increase in prevalence has slowed and stabilised over the last 5 years, there is no evidence that explains why this may be happening. The objective of this study is to estimate the extent and degree of the impact of 19 AIDS communication programmes in South Africa on HIV prevention behavior and helping people live with HIV and AIDS, using data from a national survey conducted in 2006.
South African HIV/AIDS serial drama helps decrease stigma and improve prevention behaviors among youth-2006
A powerful television serial drama about young adults living in a rural South African town impacted by HIV/AIDS has led to improved attitudes about HIV/AIDS, stigma, living openly and positively with HIV, and faithfulness among its viewers. Tsha Tsha is a gritty Nguni language drama (with English subtitles) set in the Eastern Cape that focuses on the lives of several young people exploring love, sex, and relationships in a world affected by the realities of the AIDS pandemic
Stop AIDS Love Life in Ghana “Shatters the Silence”-2003
The Stop AIDS Love Life campaign is an integrated mass media and community level Intervention in Ghana that was launched in 2000. The first phase of the campaign integrated mass media and community-level interventions to slow the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ghana by promoting greater use of HIV-protective behaviors – abstinence, faithfulness, and condoms. Condom sales increased dramatically following the launch of the Stop AIDS Love Life campaign.
Uganda Communication Campaigns Spur Integrated Health Programs -1999
A series of strategically designed, integrated behavior change communication campaigns in Uganda contributed to an increase in the contraceptive prevalence rate from 12.6% to 18.6% from 1995 to 1997 .The campaigns also helped increase condom use among men to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) from 7.8% to 11.8% (DHS 1995 &DISH Survey 1997); and contributed to a 55% increase in the number of monthly client visits at 75 sentinel health facilities.
Advocacy and Mass Media: A Winning Combination for Kenyan Youth -1998
The Youth Variety Show was implemented to address issues of youth reproductive health and was designed to appeal directly to adolescents , but it had a wide appeal as well among parents who found in it information and encouragement, they need to guide their children wisely. By mid-1996, 56% of Kenyan youth surveyed in a national sample reported listening to the Show. 41% of adults in the survey were also listeners. More than 3.3 million adolescents listened to the show, according to market surveys, and radio became a major source of referral of all new clients at sentinel clinic sites.