"Background: Interventions to raise community awareness about malaria prevention and treatment have used various approaches with little evidence on their efficacy. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of loudspeaker announcements regarding malaria care and prevention practices among peopl
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e living in the malaria endemic villages of Banmauk Township, Sagaing Region, Myanmar.
Methods: Four villages among the most malaria-burdened areas were randomly selected: two villages were assigned as the intervention group, and two as the control. Prior to the peak transmission season of malaria in June 2018, a baseline questionnaire was administered to 270 participants from randomly selected households in the control and intervention villages. The loudspeaker announcements broadcasted health messages on malaria care and prevention practices regularly at 7:00 pm every other day. The same questionnaire was administered at 6-month post intervention to both groups. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and the t-test were utilized to assess differences between and within groups.
Results: Participants across the control and intervention groups showed similar socio-economic characteristics; the baseline knowledge, attitude and practice mean scores were not significantly different between the groups. Six months after the intervention, improvements in scores were observed at p-value<0.001 in both groups, however; the increase was greater among the intervention group. The declining trend of malaria was also noticed during the study period. In addition, more than 75% of people expressed positive opinions of the intervention.
Conclusions: The loudspeaker intervention was found to be feasible and effective, as shown by the significant improvement in scores related to prevention and care-seeking practices for malaria as well as reduced malaria morbidity. Expanding the intervention to a larger population in this endemic region and evaluating its long-term effectiveness are essential in addition to replicating this in other low-resource malaria endemic regions." (Abstract)
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"There is a strong evidence base showing that SBCC programs can help improve malaria prevention and treatment behaviors. However, more work needs to be done to ensure that best practices are documented and used consistently. The review provides recommendations for strengthening peer-reviewed researc
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h papers by including strategic communication processes in journal articles. Reporting program exposure is essential for establishing the role of SBCC interventions in malaria prevention and treatment behaviors." (Conclusions)
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"Applied Theatre: Performing Health and Wellbeing is the first volume in the field to address the role that theatre, drama and performance have in relation to promoting, developing and sustaining health and wellbeing in diverse communities. Challenging concepts and understanding of health, wellbeing
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and illness, it offers insight into different approaches to major health issues through applied performance. With a strong emphasis on the artistry involved in performance-based health responses, situated within a history of the field of practice, the volume is divided into two sections: Part One examines some of the key questions around research and practice in applied performance in health and wellbeing, specifically addressing the different regional challenges that dominate the provision of health care and influence wellbeing: how the aging population of the global north creates pressure on lifetime healthcare provision, while the global south is dominated by a higher birth rate and a larger population under 15 years old. Part Two comprises case studies and interviews from international practitioners that reflect the diversity of practices across the world and in particular differences between work in the northern and southern hemispheres. These case studies include a sanitation project in a Hmong refugee camp in Thailand in the 1980s, and the sanitation and rural development projects initiated by the traveling theatre troupes of a number of University theatre departments in Africa – Makerere in Kampala, Uganda; Botswana; Lesotho and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – which began in the 1960s. It considers the emergence of Theatre for Development's use as a health approach, considering the work of Laedza Batanani and the influences of Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed." (Publisher description)
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"Mass distribution campaigns of insecticide-treated nets for malaria prevention are usually accompanied by intensive behaviour change communication (BCC) to encourage hanging and use of nets. However, data on the effectiveness of these communication efforts are scarce. In preparation for the next ro
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und of mass campaigns in Nigeria, a secondary analysis of existing data from post-Campaign surveys was undertaken to investigate the influence of BCC on net hanging and use. Surveys were undertaken between 2009 and 2012 in ten states in Nigeria using standardized questionnaires. Two-stage cluster sampling was used to select households in each study site. Outcomes were defined as the effects of BCC message exposure and recall on knowledge, attitudes, perception as well as intentions and actual use. From the univariable analysis, potential confounders and explanatory variables were identified and key effects explored in multivariable linear or logistic regression models; terms in the models were kept if they had a marginal significance with p<0.2. To quantify the effects from BCC, a treatment effect model was used with an inverse-probability weight regression adjustment. More than half of the respondents (58.4%; 95% CI 56.0, 60.7) had heard a message about net use or hanging during or after the distribution campaign, with media cited as the most common source of information. Attitude towards net use was positively linked to the number of messages recalled and was overall better in the northern study sites. The number of messages recalled was also the strongest predictor of knowledge (p<0.001). All BCC outcomes showed a significant increase in net use, which was strongest for the confidence to take action regarding nets with an overall effect of 17%-point increase of net use comparing poor and excellent confidence levels. Intention to use every night increased net use by 15%-points and discussing net use in the family by 8% points. All these effects were statistically significant (p<0.001). Multichannel BCC campaigns as well as other media were effective in contributing to an increase in net culture, hanging and use, particularly by vulnerable groups." (Abstract)
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"We use a “natural experiment” in media markets in Benin to examine the impact of community radio on government responsiveness to citizens. Contrary to prior research on the impact of mass media, in this experiment government agents do not provide greater benefits to citizens whose exposure to c
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ommunity radio increased their demand for those benefits. Households with greater access to community radio were more likely to pay for government-provided bed nets to combat malaria than to receive them for free. Mass media changed the private behavior of citizens—they invested more of their own resources in the public health good of bed nets—but not citizens’ ability to extract greater benefits from government. While the welfare consequences of these results are ambiguous, the pattern of radio's effects that we uncover has implications for policy strategies to use mass media for development objectives." (Abstract)
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"This Uganda national communication strategy for malaria prevention and control has been developed to facilitate the implementation of the Uganda Malaria Reduction Strategy (UMRS) 2014-2020. The strategy will offer a framework where every stakeholder shall take recommended actions to fund, prevent,
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diagnose, treat, control, and eventually eliminate malaria." (Acknowledments, page 4)
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"A national survey was completed in November 2004, designed to measure: media access and use; knowledge of Malaria, its prevention and cure; reach of the radio programme Bolongodala. The sample achieved represented the adult (15+) population of the Gambia estimated to be 768,200. Mandinka is the mos
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t widely spoken language with 61% claiming to speak it well. This was followed by Wolof (47%), Fula (36%) and English (17%). Radio is by far the most used medium. 97% were radio listeners, 53% had listened to radio on the day before the survey interview and 88% during the previous week. 88% have a working radio at home. Radio listening is something that most listeners do with someone else rather than on their own. Despite widespread knowledge of Mandinka, most people prefer to hear radio programmes in their own language. The radio station with both the highest national Share and Reach is GRTS Banjul with a 39% Share and 69% weekly Reach. The radio audience has a very broad demographic profile, matching the Gambian population profile very well. However, women listen less often than men. TV is the next most important medium. 83% were TV viewers, 23% had watched TV on the day before the survey interview and 56% during the previous week. 40% have a working TV set at home." (Executive summary)
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"The four Pulitzer Center projects highlighted in this guidebook are powerful examples of solutions-oriented reporting—and proof that when done well, such projects get the traction they deserve. For Amy Maxmen, the topic was malaria, new thinking regarding an effective method of malaria prevention
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that may eventually lead to widespread drug resistance. For Chris Berdik, it was how scientists are mapping Tonle Sap, Cambodia’s largest and most threatened lake, so as to devise a plan that protects both jobs and environment. For Steve Sapienza, it was efforts to deliver clean water to the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh, one of the world’s fastest growing cities. For Esha Chhabra, it was the eradication of polio in India, and the lessons from that experience for other public health challenges. Conventional wisdom says stories like this disappear, that in the chaotic din of contemporary journalism they sink without an audience. Our experience with these projects has been the opposite, with placements in outlets that range from The New York Times and The Atlantic to The Daily Beast, Nature, Forbes, and PBS NewsHour." (Pages 4-5)
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"The Field Communications Toolkit provides practical guidance and support to Malaria Consortium staff and partners who are looking to increase their communications capacity. It has been developed as a resource for project staff who work at field-level, to support you to communicate responsibly, crea
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tively and effectively about your work through highlighting achievements and impact. As well as supporting projects you are working on, information gathered in the field has the potential to be of great value to your organisation as a whole. By documenting programmes qualitatively in this way, you can provide stories that will help promote the achievements of a particular project or field, highlight engagement with partners and show the impact of your work on the ground. Capturing this information as you carry out your work can add significant value to reports and provide materials for case studies, news articles, interviews, photo stories and even films. These can then be used online and in printed publications to showcase your organisation’s work and to advocate for changes in policy. This toolkit will help to illustrate the successful impact of your projects with both donors and partners. Real life stories and pictures can be used in public information posters and leaflets, provide valuable examples to use in national workshops, and support a project’s advocacy activities." (Introduction)
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"The material in this edition covers a broad range of subjects including the unique challenges of reporting on HIV/AIDS, treatment and prevention strategies, key figures in the struggle against HIV/AIDS and global efforts to finance the campaign against HIV/AIDS. The epidemic is not only a battle ag
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ainst a virus. It can also be a battle about ideas, cultural taboos, stigma and discrimination. For that reason, we have included information about the political and social aspects of the epidemic and provide journalists with guidance about navigating these issues effectively. Additionally, there is information about malaria and tuberculosis." (Page iii)
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"Achieving and maintaining the goals of the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) and of national malaria programs depend on correct and consistent use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), acceptance of indoor residual spraying (IRS), and adherence to treatment and prevention therapies. Past malaria
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control programs have taught us the importance of communication and community participation to attain sustainable shifts in the behaviors of individuals and communities around malaria treatment and prevention. The new resources and myriad new partners available for malaria programs now provide an opportunity to fully address the underlying behaviors related to malaria prevention and treatment in the design and operation of programs." (Introduction)
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"[...] This publication, Writing for Our Lives, documents best practices from the Maisha Yetu project, whose defining feature has been continuous in-house mentoring and training on health care reporting in six African media houses over a two-year period. The uninterrupted presence of journalist-trai
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ners (as opposed to the more widespread model of one-time workshops on health care reporting) has allowed for the integration of theory and practice, resulting in dramatic changes in the quantity and quality of reporting on HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. It has created champions of health care journalism in mid- and upper-level management where there was little or none before. It has helped journalists to recognize the centrality of women’s stories in the HIV/AIDS crisis." (Foreword)
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"The Spot on Malaria guide focuses on malaria prevention and treatment messages and ways to tailor them to reach communities often missed by national malaria programmes. The guide shows how to adapt or localise materials from national malaria programmes and how to create original radio spots or adve
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rtisements to respond to local needs. It offers tools to help navigate the production process. The guide also encourages collaboration with colleagues and local experts. It suggests that gathering a team to provide advice and share some of the work will make the products stronger. The Spot on Malaria guide takes the reader through a 7-step process for planning, adapting or creating, testing and producing radio spots. It also offers tips on: securing adequate and appropriate airtime; deciding whether to use free or paid airtime; monitoring and evaluating spots. The Spot on guide also includes: resources about malaria, radio and communication - many available free on the web; planning, research and implementation tools, including a sample pretesting guide and screener; more than 15 sample scripts on various malaria topics, including treatment, insecticide-treated nets and intermittent preventive treatment of pregnant women; a sample five-day agenda for conducting a Spot On training workshop; a glossary of malaria, radio, research and scriptwriting terms." (Communication Initiative)
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A companion facilitator's manual to the "Spot on Malaria" guide (2005) for conducting an five-day hands-on workshop.
"The work in this report and that found in the International Woman’s Media Foundation / Africa Woman’s Media Centre report, Deadline for Health (2004), provide us with the only insight into malaria reporting in African contexts. Both are baseline studies made prior to journalists training interv
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entions and draw similar conclusions about the priority placed on HIV/AIDS reporting to the detriment of malaria coverage. This report goes beyond the work of the IWMF / AWMC to include the perspectives of malaria professionals and an examination of the rhetorical devices used in malaria reporting. This report outlines the results of a survey of a sample of journalists, chief editors, managing directors of major media houses and experts involved in malaria control in Kenya and the Gambia in 2005. A qualitative study of six months of newspaper reporting in three main papers in Kenya was also undertaken and the results discussed in relation to the survey results. The survey found that media professionals recognise malaria as an important health topic worthy of media attention. The majority of Gambian journalists, chief editors and MDs ranked malaria first followed by HIV/AIDS. In Kenya media personnel selected HIV/AIDS as the health issue that deserved most media coverage followed by malaria. Media people in both countries stated that HIV/AIDS dominates reporting and that malaria deserves more attention than it currently received. Issues such as maternal child health and TB received a relatively low rating in comparison. There is strong media commitment to malaria reporting as shown by the survey, however stories and programmes on the subject are usually the product of a journalists own interest, rather than a concerted effort on the part of editors and reporters. Malaria stories compete for space and time with the other issues of the day. No media houses have designated health desks, specialised health reporters or supportive editorial policy. Documented evidence of editorial guidelines was found for only one media house in Kenya." (Executive summary)
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"This practical workshop manual forms part of a five day course run by the Health and Media Partnership. The workshop aimed to teach reporters how to report on HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria in ways that contribute to the prevention and control of these diseases and positively influence the attitudes and
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behaviours of community members and decision makers." (www.comminit.com, September 11,2006)
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"This book presents practical lessons from 15 years of experience on the part of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in promoting the health of infants and children in developing countries. It has been compiled by the Academy for Education Development which conducts the Communicati
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on for Child Survival or HEALTHCOM project for USAID. The book is a collection of 24 case studies and anecdotes produced by developing country and U.S. programme implementors in confronting the challenges of diarrhoeal dehydration, vaccine-preventable diseases, acute respiratory infection, malaria and inadequate nutrition. It illustrates different aspects of a systematic approach to influencing behaviour among the family, the community, and the health care provider. The examples demonstrate the importance of balancing demand creation activities with service delivery support, and the need for advocacy at the highest leadership levels. The field notes are divided into six categories: 1) research: the foundation of decisions; 2) strategies for behaviour change; 3) designing effective materials; 4) principles and tools for training; 5) new policies, new products, new markets; and 6) management for the long term." (https://www.ircwash.org/resources)
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"Présentation du « dossier paludisme » réalisé par l'OCORA en fin 1966 — La partie écrite du dossier comporte 40 heures d'émission ; la partie sonore 19-45 — Il est prévu que certains publics seront touchés par des émissions spécifiques." (Jean-Marie Van Bol, Abdelfattah Fakhfakh: The
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use of mass media in the developing countries. Brussels: CIDESA, 1971 Nr. 1303, topic code 222)
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