Implementation Science

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Browsing Implementation Science by Subject "Impact of radio health education on members of radio"

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    Impact of radio health education on members of radio listening club’s knowledge on health issues in Malawi
    (Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, 2022-05-09) Majamanda, Maureen Daisy
    This is a radio project which aims to provide health education to Malawians through community radio stations. The problem with Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19), a lot of community outreach activities done by the nursing faculty of Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) were affected as they involved physical meetings with the communities. One such activity is the provision of health education to communities. This activity helps nursing faculty of KUHeS to reach many Malawians with different health information which helps Malawians to adopt health life styles to promote their health, prevent illness and seek health care early. It has been observed that due to fear of being diagnosed with COVID 19 and being vaccinate people delay and avoid seeking medical care from other COVID-19 non related conditions which has led to people reporting late to health facilities with complications which could be prevented. Recently, virtual ways of doing things have been adopted in many sectors just to ensure that different needs of Malawians are met and that life continues in the new normal. As such, we would like to continue with our community outreach activities through use of community radio programs. With this arrangement, we will be able to reach many Malawians with different health information that will ensure that Malawians adopt health life styles to promote their health, prevent illness and seek health care early. In addition, we will also assist the government of Malawi in sensitizing Malawians on COVID-19 related information which includes prevention and management, motivate people to get COVID-19 Vaccine and empower people with information on the following: depression, burns, sanitation innovation and mental health. We will also address stigma that is coming in due to COVID-19 and mental illnesses in our communities. We plan to run call in programs where listeners will interact with subject experts from KUHeS. This will also enable us to understand the community health needs and address them accordingly. We would like to focus on community radio stations because they are located in rural areas and this will help us reach out to people in hard to reach areas who do not have access to quality information in a timely manner. We plan to implement this project in six community radios. Two radio stations in each of the three regions of Malawi. Each radio station will air the program twice a month. Broad objective To provide health education to Malawians through community radio stations. Specific Objectives By the end of the radio health education project, we should be able to: 1. empower radio listeners with knowledge on different disease conditions such as: COVID 19 condition, mental health, depression and burns. 2. Sensitize radio listeners on the importance of getting a COVID-19 vaccine. 3. Share different sanitation innovative methods with radio listeners. Methodology The project team members and other selected content experts will provide health information through phone in programme in six selected community radio stations. Health education topics to be provided include: Covid-19 condition, Covid-19 vaccine, mental health issues, sanitation and innovation and burns. Expected findings and dissemination We expect that through the radio interactions between radio listeners and health experts, this project will lead to identification of research areas in different communities that the radio stations serve. The process followed will be presented at national and international conferences and will be published in peer reviewed journals. A report will be submitted to College of Medicine Research and Ethics Committee and the project funders.