|
||
|
|
Entertainment Education Programs
Russia: The "Care For Health" Campaign
A Russian commercial firm worked with JHU/CCP to develop television and radio spots, a family planning logo and slogan and campaign posters and souvenirs. Other activities included press conferences, a traveling lecture series, a telephone hotline, clinic open houses and disco events. Russia’s first major independent press syndicate, Globe, published over 120 articles on women’s health and family planning and a weekly newspaper column, Ask Dr. Olga. Impact
The Care for Health campaign demonstrates that a well developed and managed health communication program can be effective in changing behavior. The data show that Russian women are willing to accept alternatives as long as family planning information and services are made available. |
|
|
The first
national family planning promotion effort in Russia, the Care
for Health campaign, helped to increase use of modern
contraceptives by 12 percentage points in the targeted oblast
(region) of Ekaterinburg in 1998. The campaign was one element
of the larger Women’s Reproductive Health Program (WRHP)
that included training for health care providers and pharmacists,
advocacy and research. Together these activities also resulted
in increased family planning counseling for women in the postpartum
period, longer contraceptive continuation
rates, and a 10-50% increase in family planning clinic attendance
in the three oblasts where data were collected.
The
Women’s Reproductive Health Program was initiated in
1994 by the US Agency for International Development/Moscow.
The goal was to improve the health of women and children by
promoting change in the current family planning communication
and service delivery systems, leading to a greater use of
modern contraceptive methods: condoms, injectables, intrauterine
devices and pills. The Johns Hopkins University Center for
Communication Programs (JHU/CCP) provided technical assistance
to the campaign’s behavior change communication component,
including the Care for Health campaign. JHU/CCP collaborated
closely with a consortium of public and private Russian organizations
including the Ministry of Health (MOH), the Russian Family
Planning Association (RFPA), the University of Moscow, a commercial
public relations firm and film production company, and several
other agencies.
The Care for Health communication campaign used a strategic
approach to increase demand for contraception as a desirable,
healthy alternative
. It brought family planning
into the public arena and highlighted its importance to women
and families. The campaign’s specific objectives included
increasing knowledge and positive attitudes toward modern
contraceptives, attendance at clinics, and contraceptive use.
The multimedia campaign, which ran from February to July 1998,
focused mainly on women ages 18 to 30.
Campaign
Activities
Results
showed a dramatic jump in modern contraceptive use from 46%
in 1996 to 58% in 1998 in Ekaterinburg. Respondents were also
significantly more likely than those in Perm to report that
they had talked to a doctor or nurse about family planning
after their most recent birth
and more likely
to have left the maternity
clinic with either
a prescription or the choice of family planning method.
There
has also been a positive impact on contraceptive attitudes.
Among those women interviewed in the two surveys, almost half
of the non-users in Ekaterinburg, compared to one-third of
the non-users in Perm, adopted a modern contraceptive method.
In addition to these survey results, statistics collected
from other regions show dramatic increases in clinic attendance.
A
consortium of agencies formed during the campaign gave women
throughout Russia the opportunity to see and hear the campaign’s
message: Family Planning: Care for Health. Using the
powerful medium of television, such widespread delivery of
the message has helped the MOH recognize the need to work
closely with the media and with collaborating agencies. The
effort has prompted the MOH to include public health communication
as a line item in its annual budget.
© 2005 The Johns Hopkins University. All rights reserved.