Esther EluemeA new study published in SAGE Open, an international impact-factor journal, has found that the nature of residential areas, perceived risk and gender are the most significant factors in how people protect themselves against infectious diseases like COVID-19.
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The researchers, Dr Marcel Mbamalu, a veteran development journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Prime Business Africa and Dr Michael Ukonu, a Senior Academic at the Department of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria, Nsukka say that citizen adherence to health promoting measures is basic to any effort to contain infectious diseases.
Both researchers have independently published widely in the same field. Dr Mbamalu was, before taking up his new role as Publisher and E-i-C at Prime Business Africa, the News Editor of The Guardian, a role he played for seven years. He has had well over 20 years experience in the media industry, 16 of which was spent at The Guardian.
The researchers in the study, first published by SAGE on September 28, 2021, stress that compliance with some health-promoting measures are being hampered by the uncontrolled nature of residential areas in Nigeria, people’s feelings that they are low risk of contracting COVID-19 and the far lower tendency of men to obey COVID-19 health guidelines relative to women. For instance, participants showed high readiness to obey guidelines but where tempted to breach movement restrictions due to pressures of household resources and the fact that they could move undetected.
The researchers underline the importance of social measures in controlling COVID-19 in developing countries like Nigeria where the health system needs robust support from social measures, especially in the face of the drudgery in vaccinations and drug administration. The new study, which looks at the predictors of compliance with COVID-19 containment communications in Nigerian communities, is published by the seminal Sage Open journal, with DOI: 10.1177/21582440211047243.
The study demonstrates the centrality of communication to any measure to contain the spread of viral diseases, pointing out that the differences noticed so far in levels of adherence to protection guidelines are a result of differences in exposure to communication and perceptions of the risk posed by COVID-19. According to the researchers, communication will help a lot in buffering and resolving the difficulties posed by social and demographic factors such as type of areas of residence and perceived risk of contracting COVID-19, which were associated with breaches of health guidelines.
They also used the extant literature to show that the level of trust in information source (media, medical experts, government officials, and interpersonal communication) was an important predictor of health risk perception, self-efficacy, and attitudes to hygiene during infectious disease outbreaks such as H1N1, SARS. They warn therefore that “adherence to containment measures is even more critical as many countries (e.g., Nigeria) have since reopened their economies and are facing the risk of resurgence, which might lead to re-imposition of restrictions. For instance, following the detection of the Delta variant in Nigeria on July 8, 2021, there were 1,866 cases in just 2 weeks, and a 154% increase from the 735 cases recorded in 2 weeks before the announcement. This, according to the researchers, makes it imperative to understand the predictors of adherence to preventive messages to assure successful enforcement in the future. This, they note, is why the authorities need to work assiduously to address the issues associated with the uncontrolled exit structure of many residential areas as well as devise campaigns to encourage women to do more in homes and workplaces to bolster the participation of men in adhering to health guidelines.
In expressing their health beliefs, participants in the study thought about self-efficacy first. That is, they thought about their ability to survive if they religiously obeyed the movement restriction orders in view of the absence of palliatives. “Self-efficacy, therefore, ranks above perceived severity and risk of contracting COVID-19.” As a result, “an incentive to ensure adherence to movement restrictions would be the provision of palliatives and better controlled residential areas. While problems about trust in government and media information remain, the provision of incentives would make people to see the benefit of obeying stay-at-home orders, which are also the ultimate goal of all government and media messages. This may influence the ‘cue to action’ such as conversations among friends or contributions to media programs in a way to support others’ adherence.”
The researchers conclude that the relationship between adherence to prevention guidelines and attitudes to media messages on the one hand and certain social and credibility factors on the other implies that respondents may have had reduced risk perception and disease severity due to the perceived cost of (non)adherence. Therefore, the social and infrastructural challenges to adherence are important to the fight against COVID-19. If adherence is related to perceived ease and level of enforcement, then government and the media must pay closer attention to the credibility assessment of their messages.
Read the original study at Sage Open journal, with DOI: 10.1177/21582440211047243
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