Case Study: Targeting Malaria Prevention Education to Rural Women Under 30 In Kenya

Consider a public health initiative to provide young rural women with information about protecting themselves and their children from malaria. The data from the AudienceScapes 2009 Survey in Kenya can help to define the demographic characteristics of this target group (defined here as women between the ages of 15 to 29 living in rural areas, a group of 273 respondents in the survey).

Table 1 shows that, by and large, this group faces serious disadvantages compared to the rest of the population. Young rural women are more likely to face poverty, with 40 percent saying that their households struggle to buy basic necessities. They were less likely to have gone beyond primary school, and less likely to work than were other survey respondents (all male respondents, older rural women and urban women). They were also about half as likely as other respondents to say that they themselves have the final say on health care decisions for their families (17 percent for the target group, versus 15 percent for all other respondents).

Table 1: Profile of Rural Women under 30

AudienceScapes National Survey of Kenya, July 2009 N = 273 who were identified as rural women under 30 (between 15-29)

Next, AudienceScapes data shed light on how this unique group currently gets information about malaria, and how they receive and share information in general. As shown in Table 2, about three quarters of the target group had heard news or information about malaria in the last month, mainly from radio, friends and family, and medical doctors. The information provided by doctors was most trusted among the target group, but only a third of young rural women said they had received malaria information from doctors.

Table 2: Information-Gathering Habits for Rural Women under 30

AudienceScapes National Survey of Kenya, July 2009 N = 273 who were identified as rural women under 30 (between 15-29)

Putting these pieces together, the AudienceScapes data point to ways in which a communication initiative could effectively reach rural women under 30.

• Messages delivered in Kiswahili would be understood by virtually all of the target group, so costly translations might be unnecessary. Since Kiswahili is not most young rural women’s primary language, however, simple language would be most effective.
• Messages should be kept basic enough for a group with limited education to understand, and be sensitive to the severe resource constraints that about 40 percent of the audience are facing. For example, convincing women of the value of insecticide-treated nets would not likely be effective unless their families could afford to purchase them or knew where to access subsidized or free nets.
• Since fewer than a fifth of young rural women make decisions about their families’ health care on their own, the campaign might need to include tips on talking to other household members about malaria prevention. Almost a third of young rural women said their parents or husbands make such decisions, so programs could focus on how young women could influence those members of their families, or could include men and older parents more directly.
• Radio stands out as the most efficient means of reaching a wide audience; the relatively high levels of trust in radio messages could be further bolstered by teaming with medical doctors as spokespeople.

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