Effectiveness of Communication Strategies of the Urban Health Extension Program in Bringing Behavioral Change in Habits of Hygiene and Sanitation: The Case of Woreda 1 (Kebele 01/18) of Lideta Sub-city – Addis Ababa

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Date

2013-01

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

These days, health is taken to be the product of the individual’s continuous interaction and interdependence with her/his ecosphere. Based on this belief, enabling people to increase control over and improve their health has been considerably given attention in health policies made nationally and internationally. One method to achieve this goal is a strategic health communication. This study is, therefore, primarily focused on the communication strategies employed by the Addis Ababa Health Bureau’s Urban Health Extension Program (UHEP) to bring behavioral change in the habits of hygiene and sanitation. Woreda 1 of Lideta Sub-city, in Addis Ababa, is deliberately chosen because it is one of the highly congested slums of the city where poor hygiene and sanitation is a severe problem. The major issues raised in this study are the communication strategies employed by the UHEP to change the community’s unhealthy hygiene and sanitation habits, and their effectiveness in building the audience’s self-efficacy and thereby developing healthy behaviors. Qualitative research method was basically used to deal with these issues, and an attempt to complement it with a quantitative one was made. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth individual interviews, participant observation and a questionnaire filled out by the UHEP’s target audience. Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), and especially his concept of Self3 efficacy, was used to analyze and discuss the data collected. The self-efficacy level of the targets was also measured by using Shwarzer and Jerusalem’s Generalized Self-Efficacy scale (GSE). As a result of the analysis, the study indicated that the major communication strategies of the UHEP are interpersonal channels assisted by demonstrations. Though mass media channels were also taken as part of the strategy, priority was given to printed materials like brochures. These materials were also found to be with very poor quality to appropriately transcend the messages they contained. Regarding their effectiveness, the communication strategies were found to be ineffective in building their target audience’s self-efficacy and thereby in achieving the intended change in behavior. This is attributed to the contents and the approach of the communication strategies. The majority of the UHEP’s models were found to have very low level of self-efficacy because the contents were informative in nature that they cannot build self-efficacy, and the approach was in a classroom lecture format. The study recommends exploitation of other channels like peer-to-peer and traditional communication channels, adequate budget allocation for mass media, and modification of contents in a way they would increase self-efficacy in order to make the program effective in the hygiene and sanitation package.

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Communication Strategies of the Urban Health Extension Program

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