Malaria Education in Tanzania: Exploiting All Means of Outreach

This seven-page research brief, prepared by AudienceScapes, presents the results of a survey conducted in Tanzania designed to measure people's access to information in general, and access to health information in particular, as well as access to health services. The data yields some guidelines for public health professionals seeking to educate the public about malaria. The report states that while radio remains a crucial tool for vulnerable and low access groups, word-of-mouth mechanisms, whether through doctors or existing social networks, act as important information dissemination mechanisms that have the potential to provide more in-depth health advice. Given the mass media use gap between low and high access groups, it is crucial for health practitioners to fully exploit local word-of-mouth networks.

According to the report, some prominent anti-malaria programmes acknowledge this and have trained "Change Agents" in Tanzania to help educate the public. For example, the Presidentís Malaria Initiative (PMI) ran a programme that had trained 1200 Community Change Agents in 11 regions by the end of 2009 on the proper use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNS) and malaria medications. The PMI's goal was to have 2900 Change Agents in the field by the end of 2010. In addition, Population Services International and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are training and deploying Change Agents.

Initial assessments of the initiative in 2009 showed greater awareness and knowledge of ITNs and malarial treatments but indicators measuring access and attitudes towards treatment and prevention remained low. These results highlight the challenge of behaviour change communication and its ultimate goal of turning knowledge and awareness into action.

In order for these Change Agents to successfully reach vulnerable and low access populations, the report states that they need to be aware of the socio-economic constraints of their audiences and be able to identify and exploit locally trusted word-of-mouth networks. These Change Agents have been tasked to work closely with local Ministry of Health clinics, which offer Change Agents a venue to identify at-risk populations and community influentials, along with an opportunity to share a more in-depth educational message than a mass media message might offer.

The study also found that a large proportion of Tanzanians across the country have access to clinics and medical doctors. However, there is great variability among respondents of different regions as to the usefulness of medical doctors as a source of information about malaria. This points to the need for increased outreach to clinics and hospitals in high risk provinces of the country like Kagera, Mwanza, and Mtwara where infection rates are twice the national average.

The research found that the majority of survey respondents receive enough information about malaria prevention, however, malaria also is one of the heath issues that many Tanzanians say they want more information about. This suggests a case of improper messaging, whether it is ineffective framing of the issue or the use of inappropriate communications mediums, and the need for improved message testing.