Measuring the effect of interpersonal communication on awareness and knowledge of COVID-19 among rural communities in Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Awareness and knowledge have been identified as essential requirements to successfully combat the global threat which COVID-19 currently poses. Rural communities are particularly at risk because of their low socio-economic status and high illiteracy level. There is currently uncertainty regarding how to effectively raise awareness about the pandemic and educate rural communities about it. In this study, we tested the effectiveness of interpersonal communication in awareness creation and knowledge about COVID-19 among rural communities in a developing country. We tested three hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The sample size was made up 470 participants. The questionnaire served as the instrument for data collection. In the analysis of data, both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. The results demonstrate that interpersonal communication is effective in creating awareness about COVID-19 among rural communities. It was also found that interpersonal communication was effective in improving knowledge about the pandemic among rural communications. We explored the implications of these findings on healthcare delivery.

Predicting COVID-19 health behaviour initiation, consistency, interruptions and discontinuation among social media users in Nigeria

“…Over the years, health behaviour has been examined in literature ( Lawton et al , 2007 ; Adjah and Panayiotou, 2014 ; Ezeah et al , 2020 ; Onuora et al , 2021 ). The seeming focus on health behaviour among researchers and health experts underscores the critical role of health behaviour in healthcare delivery.…”

“…When health information and campaigns are planned and implemented, the goal is usually to ensure that the target receivers of such information adopt and sustain positive health behaviour. Ezeah et al affirm that behaviour modification is the fundamental desire of all health promotion efforts (Ezeah et al , 2020 ). This implies that effective control of public health emergencies is largely dependent on the adoption and sustenance of relevant health behaviour.…”

“…Typically, behaviour can be examined from the perspective of positive and negative health behaviour ( Ezeah et al , 2020 ). Health behaviour can be regarded as positive if it contributes in combating a public health emergency.…”

Effect of dramatized health messages: Modelling predictors of the impact of COVID-19 YouTube animated cartoons on health behaviour of social media users in Nigeria

“…As Nadeem (2020) corroborates, human history is going through a very challenging era trying to combat this enemy called COVID-19 which we can hardly see. Ezeah et al (2020) say that COVID-19 is an indication that the health system of the entire world requires a complete reorganization so as to better respond to public health emergencies. According to Wu et al (2020), COVID-19 first broke out in Wuhan, Republic of China, in late December 2019.…”

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