DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION AND THE SPREAD OF COVID-19

 By Lawrence Sunday Ogwang

 (+256782516677)

 

What is health communication?

Health communication is the study and practice of communicating promotional health information, such as in public health campaigns, health education, and between doctor and patient. The purpose of disseminating health information is to influence personal health choices by improving health literacy. It is usually intended to influence people’s knowledge, decisions, actions and attitudes towards a health issue inform and influence to improve health.

This can be achieved through the notion of communication as linear where information flows from top to bottom and the receivers only take in the message given them. Alternatively, health communication can be achieved through participatory approach. Thus, the two-way model which recognizes that communication is a complex and dynamic process of interaction in which people individually and or collectively take control of their welfare. This approach treasures interaction and feedback.

Health communication is sometimes considered a special
form of communication because of the fact that some people have high personal sensitivity stimuli towards it due to its nature. Above all, the highly technical vocabulary and strong (powerful) group of gatekeepers to health knowledge makes health communication a special type.

b) You are the Communication specialist of the Ministry of Health in Uganda; discuss any four theories under Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) and how they apply to COVID-19 prevention.    

Behavior change communication (BCC) is an interactive process with communities (as integrated with an overall program) to develop tailored messages and approaches using a variety of communication channels to develop positive behaviors; promote and sustain individual, community and societal behavior change; and maintain appropriate behaviors. Where individuals are found to have insufficient or harmful attitudes, knowledge or practices, programs are designed to address these deficiencies.

There are several theories under behavior change communication. These include the following:

Theory of Reasoned Action/Planned Behavior

Two closely associated theories – The Theory of Reasoned Action and the Theory of Planned Behavior – suggest that a person's health behavior is determined by their intention to perform a behavior. A person's intention to perform a behavior (behavioral intention) is predicted by:  A person's attitude toward the behavior, and Subjective norms regarding the behavior. Subjective norms are the result of social and environmental surroundings and a person's perceived control over the behavior. Generally, positive attitude and positive subjective norms result in greater perceived control and increase the likelihood of intentions governing changes in behavior. The theory has the following assumptions:

§  People are rational and thoughtful, not automatic and mindless.

§  People’s behaviors are based on their beliefs about the consequences of the behavior and what they think other people want them to do.

§  Behavior is rational and social.

 This theory is applicable to COVID-19 prevention in the sense that people’s response to this pandemic is mostly determined by their attitude towards it. For example, one of the directives give in a bid to prevent the pandemic is wearing face mask but many people are perceiving it negatively by not wearing the mask. This is what their attitudes are like.

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) also known as social learning theory, describes the influence of individual experiences, the actions of others, and environmental factors on individual health behaviors. SCT provides opportunities for social support through instilling expectations, self-efficacy, and using observational learning and other reinforcements to achieve behavior change.

Key components of the SCT related to individual behavior change include:

• Self-efficacy: The belief that an individual has control over and is able to execute a behavior.
• Behavioral capability: Understanding and having the skill to perform a behavior.
• Expectations: Determining the outcomes of behavior change.
• Expectancies: Assigning a value to the outcomes of behavior change.
• Self-control: Regulating and monitoring individual behavior.
• Observational learning: Watching and observing outcomes of others performing or modeling the desired behavior.
• Reinforcements: Promoting incentives and rewards that encourage behavior change.

This theory applies to COVID-19 prevention in the sense that some people have changed their behaviors just by seeing what other people are doing like washing hands with soap or sanitizing the hands and they have started doing the same. Others are washing their hands because of their experience of what it means to wash hands.

Stages of Change Model (Trans theoretical Model)

The Stages of Change Model, also called the Trans theoretical Model, explains an individual's readiness to change their behavior. It was developed in the early 1990s specifically to end smoking. It describes the process of behavior change as occurring in stages. These stages include:

• Pre-contemplation: There is no intention of taking action.
• Contemplation: There are intentions to take action and a plan to do so in the near future.
• Preparation: There is intention to take action and some steps have been taken.
• Action: Behavior has been changed for a short period of time.
• Maintenance: Behavior has been changed and continues to be maintained for the long-term.
• Termination: There is no desire to return to prior negative behaviors.

In the presidential directives on Covid-19 prevention measures like curfew, wearing mask and keeping social distance, people contemplated adhering to these directives and finally took it up. However, as time keeps going, people are beginning to relapse from the once treasured directives and some of these preventive measures no longer make sense.

Diffusion of innovations theory

This theory describes the process of how an idea is disseminated throughout a community. According to the theory, there are four essential elements not to be confused as stages: the innovation, its communication, the social system and time.

People’s exposure to a new idea, which takes place within a social network or through the media, will determine the rate at which various people adopt a new behaviour.

The theory states that people are most likely to adopt new behaviors based on favorable evaluations of the idea communicated to them by other members whom they respect. The main argument is that certain individuals (opinion leaders) from a given population act as agents of behaviour change by disseminating information and influencing norms in their community. Their influence on group norms is seen as a result of person-to-person exchanges and discussions.

In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, the various preventive measures innovated by ministry of health has been communicated through different media channels where different respected people in the community (opinion leaders) have taken it up where their followers have also taken it up. This theory therefore applies to COVID-19 preventive measures in the above stated way.

As a Development communication student, explain any four drawbacks of BCC in respect to COVID-19 prevention.   

As much as Behavior Change Communication (BCC) is essential in addressing health related problems, there are some drawbacks that sometimes frustrate the intention of the communication especially in this wake of CVID-19 prevention. Some of these snags are:

Language

Language is the main medium of communication be it verbal or non-verbal. Once people are not familiar with the language used, it can lead to communication breakdown. Hence, once of the drawbacks of BCC is language. In respect to the COVID-19 prevention, language has been an issue. Most of the preventive measures have always been given in English and yet not all people are comfortable with English language. Although in some cases Luganda and other few languages have been used, not all languages have been catered for and thus, leaving some people without understanding the message at hand. Even where English language is being used to address the nation, the president has sometimes been heard giving some directives in Lunyangkole, a language that is familiar to all.

Indifference:

One of the drawbacks of BCC is indifference from the people for whom the communication is intended. For example, in cases where information and education materials (IEM) are printed on leaflets and stickers, some people may throw away these promotion materials like leaflets without reading them. In relation to COVID-19 prevention materials from the Ministry of Health, many people have been treating these directives with indifference and failing to take action as the communication may demand. A cases in point is MoH directives on social distancing. Most people have not taken this to heart and have continued to frustrate this directive simply because of indifference.   

Poverty

While it is true that BCC messages are free especially to the people for whom the communication is intended, accessing these messages sometimes demand financial strength. In the COVID-19 preventive measures, it has become increasingly clear that one has to buy some of these preventive equipment like mask, hand sanitizers and so on. In the event that one wants to watch or listen to the news on the preventive measures, one has to buy a TV set or the Radio. These equipment has some financial implications which is not favorable to the poor lot, thereby, hitting a snag to these BCC since many people don't have TV sets at home to watch television advertisements that are associated with health promotions.

Corruption

One of the biggest drawbacks in any institution is corruption and MoH is not any better. BCC has always been faced by this problem. In a fight against COVID-19 pandemic, the issue of corruption has been and is still a problem. Evidence has it that a lot of money has been given out to different task forces in various districts to help fight COVID-19 but the jaws of corruption are devouring the money meant for Covid 19 prevention. This has left many plans of the MoH to be frustrated. Corruption therefore, like Covid-19, is a very dangerous ‘pandemic’ that needs treatment.

In conclusion, despite the different drawbacks in BCC, it has helped and is still helping in addressing several issues and in particular, health related challenges.