Health communication materials use in providing health education among health professionals working at health-care institutions in Gondar City: a cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

Health communication affects people’s decision-making that promotes health. Well-designed health communication materials have the potential to impact social norms and behaviors and lead to a healthier life. This study assessed health communication materials use among health professionals working at health-care institutions in Gondar city, Northwest Ethiopia. A health facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics were computed, and logistic regression analysis was fitted to identify factors associated with health communication materials use. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) and p-value <0.05 were used to measure the strength of the association and declare significant variables, respectively. A total of 298 health professionals participated in the study with a response rate of 96.40%. Approximately two-thirds (67.50%) of the study participants ever used health communication materials. Being a midwifery (AOR = 0.31; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.85) and laboratory (AOR = 0.31; 95% CI: 0.10, 0.93) professional, and not delivering health education (AOR = 0.09, 95% CI: 0.04, 0.21), were negatively associated with use of health communication materials. On the other hand, working at a health center (AOR = 3.60, 95% CI: 1.52, 8.54), availability of the materials (AOR = 2.23, 95% CI: 1.10, 4.53) and having good knowledge about the materials (AOR = 2.69, 95% CI: 1.36, 5.32) were positively associated with health communication materials use. Health professionals’ health communication materials use is critical in promoting pro-health attitudes and behaviors. Improving the availability of health communication materials, harmonizing health communication activities, and building the capacity of health professionals need to be emphasized.

KEYWORDS:

• Health communication
• Health education
• Health communication materials use
• Health professionals
• Ethiopia

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the University of Gondar, study participants, data collectors, Gondar City Health office, and Heads of the health centers for their contribution to this research work.

Authors’ contributions

SH, MW, AN, and AK designed and managed the study SH, MW, KS, AN, AA, and AK contributed to the study conceptualization and provided critical editorial input to the interpretation of the data. SH conducted the formal analysis and wrote the draft manuscript. AN, MW, KS, AA, and AK reviewed the drafted manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data

The datasets analyzed in the current study are publicly available at Kaggle https://www.kaggle.com/simegnewhandebo/iec_data.

Abbreviations

AIDS	=	Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome
AOR	=	Adjusted Odds Ratio
BCC	=	Behavior Change Communication
CI	=	Confidence Interval
COVID	=	Coronavirus Disease
COR	=	Crude Odds Ratio
IEC	=	Information, Education, and communication
HIV	=	Human Immunodeficiency Virus
SD	=	Standard Deviation
TB	=	Tuberculosis
WHO	=	World Health Organization

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work