State of Health Information Dissemination for Disease Control Among Rural Dwellers in Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria
Authors : Dr. Helen Emmanuel & Prof. I.I. Ekoja
The study examined the state of health information dissemination for disease control among rural dwellers in Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to identify the available sources of health information and the extent of their availability to the respondents, ascertain their knowledge level on communicable diseases outbreak, transmission and prevention, and to identify ways libraries and information centres can partner with public health extension workers to disseminate information to them. The study adopted survey research design and the population consisted of all the rural dwellers in the Local Government Area. Four hundred and fifty respondents were randomly sampled from the total population of 229,641 rural dwellers, alongside twenty health workers in the area. The data collected were analyzed using frequency distributions and mean scores on the basis of four-scale rating. The study identified eleven sources of health information with the radio as the most accessed even with its limitation of lack of immediate feedback. The other sources were mobile phones, places of worship, friends, chiefs/community leaders, etc in that descending order. The respondents level of knowledge of communicable diseases outbreak, transmission and prevention was low, and the ways identified for partnership to disseminate relevant information included organizing talks in the local dialect, translation and packaging of health information pictorially and in songs using local dialect. Access to health information was hindered by lack of functional health centres, extension services and qualified personnel, libraries and information centres, funding as well as language barrier. Recommendations made included making health information more accessible, for example use of phones in radio programmes for immediate access, intensification of education to increase knowledge level on communicable diseases outbreak, transmission and prevention, and better resourced health facilities for information provision in formats that appeal to rural dwellers.
Keywords - Access, Information, Disease Control, Rural Dwellers, Nigeria
Cite This Article As: . Emmanuel, H. & Ekoja, I.I..(2020). State of Health Information Dissemination for Disease Control Among Rural Dwellers in Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria. International Journal of Research in Library Science (IJRLS), 6(2) 34-47. www.ijrls.in
DOI : 10.26761/IJRLS.6.2.2020.1333 DOI URL: https://doi.org/10.26761/ijrls.6.2.2020.1333
Copyright © 2020 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.
Publication Date : 10 August 2020 Hits : 322