Exposure to mass media family planning messages among post-delivery women in Nigeria: testing the structural influence model of health communication

Objectives: While media campaigns are documented to be useful for increasing the uptake of family planning, very little is known about the population prevalence and correlates of exposure to mass media family planning messages among post-delivery women in Nigeria. We aimed to address this void by exploring the underlying factors that explain disparities in exposure to mass media family planning messages among post-delivery women in Nigeria.

Methods: Our study was a secondary analysis of the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, a nationally representative dataset of men and women. Using logistic regression techniques and drawing on the structural influence model of health communication, we explored post-delivery women’s (N?=?13,889) exposure to mass media family planning messages in Nigeria.

Results: We found that 32% of post-delivery women were exposed to family planning messages on mass media in Nigeria. At the bivariate level, Muslim women were less likely to be exposed to mass media family planning messages compared with Christian women (odds ratio [OR] 0.39; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.36, 0.41); however, the OR became positive once we controlled for structural determinants such as household wealth and education (OR 1.22; 95% CI 1.07, 1.40). In the multivariate analysis, we found that traditionalist women (OR 0.29; 95% CI 0.14, 0.58) and women from rural areas (OR 0.69; 95% CI 0.62, 0.76) were less likely to be exposed to such messages. Moreover, richer, better educated, and employed women were more likely to be exposed to mass media family planning messages compared with their poorer, less educated and unemployed counterparts. Similarly, living in the South West region was positively associated with higher odds of being exposed to such messages.

Conclusion: Findings were largely consistent with the structural influence model of health communication, as highlighted by inequalities in exposure to mass media messages. Based on these findings, we provide several policy recommendations.