Wilsken Agencies Ltd.

This report shares the results of a survey conducted in March 2001 to assess the reach, comprehension, appeal, and impact on knowledge and practices of individuals of three radio programmes broadcast in Uganda by the Delivery of Improved Services for Health (DISH) II Project. This is a project that works with the Ugandan Ministry of Health and health services in 12 districts to improve the health status of families living in these areas. One of its major areas of intervention is to change key health practices of individuals, families, and communities by producing a variety of health promotion materials and supporting districts to conduct community-based health promotion activities.

Two of the programmes evaluated here ("Olujegere lw'obulamu" and "Orugyejere rw'amagara") had been running since November 2000 on radio Uganda and CBS, carrying messages advocating for men's involvement in family planning, improved infant feeding practices, better prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and HIV counselling and testing. Running on CBS since January 2001, the other programme, "Nze n'Owange", was recorded in rural communities; in each community, married couples competed to see which couple knew most about each other. The predominant message in the programme was that it's important for husbands and wives to talk together and make family decisions together.

The survey was conducted on a random sample of 576 men and women, aged between 18 and 35 years, chosen from 5 out of the 12 DISH operation districts. The research instrument was a questionnaire containing 50 items that was administered face-to-face by teams of trained interviewers; all interviews were conducted in the local languages.

Selected findings:

• About 94% of people surveyed had working radio sets in their houses. The majority of people listen to radio every day (88%), however more men (94%) than women (83%) do so. Based on the broadcast time (9-10:00 p.m.) and various questions asked to determine listenership patterns, evaluators conclude that the programmes' scheduling and placement is more effective in reaching: the rural more than the urban, men more than women, and more people on Sunday than any other day.
• Overall listenership for "Nze n'Owange" was found to be 40%, with regular listenership between 10% and 21%. For "Olujegere Lw'Obulamu", overall listenership was 39%, with regular listenership ranging between 8% and 19%. The figures for the third programme were: 50% overall listenership, with 9-15% regular listenership.
• Recall of specific details about the programmes, including sponsor recognition, was found to be low, especially for listeners of programmes on CBS.
• Data indicated more of a positive attitude towards the programme messages than a negative one; apart from discussing condom use, most people reported being very comfortable with the main theme messages behind the programmes.
• Evaluators asked survey respondents how important they thought it was that men get fully involved in family health. A majority (79%) responded in that it is very important, with 16% deeming this somewhat important and 2% saying this was not very important.
• Evaluators asked respondents whose responsibility they thought it was to control the number of children produced in a home. Most (59%) said that it is the responsibility of both the man and the woman. However, more women (64%) than men (54%) believe this; considerably more men believe that it is their responsibility than women believe it is their responsibility.
• About 91% of all respondents interviewed are interested in learning more about the use of modern contraceptive methods for family planning.
• 87% of "Nze n'Owange" listeners reported finding the programme enjoyable; that figure was 86% and 85% for "Olujegere lw'Obulamu" and "Orugyejere rw'Amagara", respectively.
• Only 9% of "Nze N'owange" and "Olujegere lw'Obulamu" listeners had ever written in to the presenters of these programmes. Of the western "Orugyejere Rw'amagara" listeners, 21% said they had written in. The main reasons advanced for not writing letters to listeners to presenters were: No questions to ask, lack of interest and time to ask questions, no radio address, lack of means to send the letters, little knowledge of the programmes.
• Recall for "Nze N'Owange": 39% of listeners said they remember the games in the programme most; 34% remember nothing; 14% remember the music most; 4% the programme presenter; and 3% recall most the prizes. In terms of what they believe is the main theme message of the programme, 49% believe that this programme is about the importance of husbands and wives having rapport and 22% believe that it's about men's involvement in family planning/family health. 16% do not know.
• For "Olujegere lw'Obulamu" listeners: 31% recall most the programme topics, 23% recall most the drama, 33% remember nothing, 5% recall the listeners' letters, and 4% recall most the music. In terms of what they believe is the main message behind the programme, 31% say its men's involvement in family health, 24% say it is about better treatment of STIs, 13% believe that it is about AIDS testing and counselling, and 11% believe that it is about improved infant feeding practices.
• For "Orugyejere rw'Amagara" listeners, the drama (46%) is the most remembered component of the programme. 28% recall most the programme topics, 11% remember nothing, and 7% remember most the presenters. In terms of what they believe is the main message of the programme, 41% believe that it is about men's involvement in family health, while 28% say that it is about husband and wives talking together, 12% believe that it about better treatment of STIs, 10% say that it is about AIDS testing and counselling, and 6% do not know.
• Listeners were asked if listening had changed the way they looked at some issues. 69% of "Nze n'Owange" and "Olujegere lw'Obulamu" listeners said yes, and 51% of "Orugyejere rw'Amagara" listeners said the same.
• Table XIII on page 18 of the report indicates that that there is not much difference in terms of health-related interests between listeners to the DISH programmes and the non-listeners. Evaluators say, "This is not a bad thing because it means that there is a lot of interest out there and a thirst for health related information that can be fed by the programmes."

"In terms of impact of the programmes in influencing behaviour, though the results above can be taken as indicative of what is the status on ground, they cannot be taken as entirely conclusive in determining what is the contribution of the DISH to the observed behaviour. As can be seen from table XIV and XV [Editor's note: see pages 18-19] though listeners of the DISH programmes tend to do better on the items. For example they tend to use family planning centres more often than the non-listeners (table XIV) and their frequency in engaging in some recommend health related practices is higher, (table XV) again their difference from the non-listeners is mostly not significant. This means that either the programmes are not being effective in influencing the end result behaviour or the non-listeners observed behaviour is being influenced by sources with similar information and messages to the DISH programmes. Our sense is that the latter is true more likely to true. Also note should be taken that radio programmes had been running for less than 20 weeks (5 months) by the time the survey was conducted. Nze N'owange particularly had been running for only 8 weeks. This factor time could mean the programmes have not yet had enough time to influence listener behaviour that much."

Evaluators conclude that "What now needs to be done is to put in place strategies that will draw more attention to the broadcast time and days and in effect increase the overall listener-ship for the programmes as well as consider addition presence or other radio stations especially in the west....As regards influence of the programmes on knowledge and practices of the listeners, our sense is that judgement should not be made that the programmes are not being effective. What is evident from the results is that there is a need to improve the quality of listener-ship for the programmes so that there is focused attention by the listener. This kind of attention we believe will lead to greater influence of listeners' knowledge and practices."

DISH website.