ASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE OF RADIO IN SENSITIZING NURSING MOTHERS IN PROMOTING MATERNAL HEALTH IN OFFA

This study examined the assessment of the role of radio in sensitizing nursing mothers in promoting maternal health in Offa. This study had four objectives which includes to find out the level of exposure of women in Offa to maternal health messages on radio, to determine the level of understanding of maternal health messages on radio programme among women in Offa local government, to examine perception of maternal health messages on radio programme by women in Offa Local government, to find out the level of adoption of maternal health messages by the women in Offa and to investigate the influence of maternal health messages of radio programme on women’s attitude towards maternal health care. This study makes use of quantitative research design, survey research method was adopted. The population of this study was 120, 100, while the sample size was 384. The sampling technique used was multi-stage sampling technique. The method of data analysis used in this research work was statistical analysis which involves simple percentage and cross tables. Questionnaire was the instrument used in gathering data. The data gathered and analyzed revealed that most of the respondents agreed that they access maternal health messages through radio while some of them agreed that they always access maternal health messages through radio on a daily basis. It concluded that broadcast media is popularly used by nursing mothers and is a major source of enlightenment on maternal health issues but radio was identified as more effective than television in disseminating maternal health messages. It recommended that government and other nations across the globe should resort to the utilization of communication campaigns to reach out to the public with the aim of influencing their engagement in desired health practices.