Influence of radio messages: On evsico- vaginal fistula disease among female audience in North-West Nigeria

Abstract

The increasing incidence of vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF) in Nigeria has justified the need for continued exploration of ways to prevent the occurrence of this debilitating maternal morbidity and rehabilitation of affected women. This study was conducted to find out how radio has responded to VVF campaign among females in North-west Nigeria and to establish whether radio’s response contributed to creating awareness about the disease in the study area.The study adopted survey design and focused on two groups of females, namely, healthy women attending antenatal care and women receiving treatment at designated VVF centres. Multi-s age sampling technique was used to select 389 females through the administration of questionnaire while descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. The findings showed that most of the participants (73.8%) have heard about VVF while only 27% were aware of radio programme on the disease. Those exposed to radio messages on VVF benefitted and gained new informationin several wayswhich empowered them to understand and make informed decisions about the disease. The radio messages covered essential information vital to ensure a basic level of knowledge and understanding of the disease. The messages impacted and increased knowledge on causes, symptoms, treatment and preventive measures against VVF.The radio messages created good educational and learning opportunities on VVF among the participants in this study that need to be strengthened. The study concluded that radio provided the needed information on VVF for women that heard the messages and to a large extent impacted on them in many ways. The study emphasized the need for allocation of adequate time for messages on the radio so that people in the study area can be more informed about the disease.