Women’s mass media exposure and maternal health awareness in Ota, Nigeria

Abstract

Maternal health has been an issue of priority to nations across the globe for years now. This study sought to: identify the sources of maternal health awareness; examine means of obtaining maternal health information; determine the frequency of mass media exposure; and analyse the influence of mass media exposure on maternal health awareness among the female residents. The Agenda-setting theory and the descriptive (survey) research design, using the questionnaire as the research instrument, were utilized in this study. For this study, the purposive and haphazard sampling techniques were used. The internet (49%) was the topmost source of maternal health awareness; adverts/campaigns (30.6%) were the most common means of obtaining maternal health information; once in a month [27.6%] was the exposure frequency of most participants to the mass media while the least exposure frequency was once in two weeks [5.1%]. It was discovered that mass media exposure had a significant influence on maternal health awareness. Given a number of factors noted to challenge people’s access to communication interventions in Nigeria, the study recommends that the goal of increasing the level of maternal health awareness needs to be matched with action thereby influencing the adoption of intervention measures aimed at reducing the rate of maternal mortality to the barest minimum.

Keywords

• women
• knowledge
• mass media
• exposure
• maternal health
• agenda-setting theory