Babalola S, Fatusi A, Anyanti J. Media saturation, communication exposure and HIV stigma in Nigeria.

Babalola S, Fatusi A, Anyanti J. Media saturation, communication exposure and HIV stigma in Nigeria.

HIV-related stigma constitutes an impediment to public health as it hampers AIDS control efforts in many ways. To address the complex problems of increasing HIV infection rates, widespread misinformation about the infection, and the rising level of HIV-related stigma, the various tiers of government in Nigeria are working with local and international non-governmental organizations to develop and implement strategic communication programmes. This paper assesses the link between these communication efforts and HIV-related stigma using data from a nationally representative household survey. The results show that accepting attitudes towards people living with HIV are more prevalent among men than among women. Exposure to HIV-related communication on the media is associated with increased knowledge about HIV, which is in turn a strong predictor of accepting attitudes. Communication exposure also has a significant and positive association with accepting attitudes towards people living with HIV. In contrast, community media saturation is not strongly linked with accepting attitudes for either sex. The findings strongly suggest that media-based HIV programs constitute an effective strategy to combat HIV-related stigma and should therefore be intensified in Nigeria.

Editors’ note: Community media saturation in this study was defined as the average level of exposure to radio and television of people residing in local areas of residence, and not as actual exposure to HIV-related materials. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that community media saturation made little difference overall on accepting attitudes towards people living with HIV. Radio listening habit was the most significant predictor of HIV campaign exposure, with intensity of exposure in turn varying by sex, education, religion, urban/rural residence, household socio-economic status, and geographic zone of residence. When the messaging is HIV-specific, personal exposure to it is associated with more accepting attitudes for both men and women. However, unmeasured factors operating at community level in Nigeria will have to be addressed to change the community norms that foster stigma towards people living with HIV – simply expanding media-based HIV programming alone is unlikely to have the desired effect.