Accessing Mass Media on Reproductive Behavior in Africa

The following data comes from research undertaken by Westoff and colleagues at Demograhic and Health Surveys, in Burkina Faso; Ghana; Kenya; Morocco; Madagascar; Namibia and Zambia. They looked at the impact accessing mass media had on people's reproductive health choices. In doing so they controlled for the variables that could distort such findings: income levels; socio-economic status; age; rural-urbam; male-female; etc.

Overview: This analysis strongly suggests that exposure to mass media [has considerable] …influence [ on] reproductive behavior, even without radical economic and social changes [para 1, Executive Summary of Research Report].

“The general conclusion of this report is that there is a persistent and frequently strong association between exposure to the mass media and reproductive behaviour in Africa in the expected direction; … greater knowledge and use of contraception, intention to use contraception in the future, preferences for fewer children and intention to stop child bearing. In addition, there is evidence that media exposure is also associated with later age at marriage. These conclusions are generalizable to women and men, both married and single. [para 4 of Executive Summary]

Specific conclusions from all data in the report

1. Radio exposure shows the most consistent associations with [positive] reproductive behavior.
2. The reproductive measures most consistently related to media exposure for women are knowledge of methods, current use, intention to use, and age at marriage.
3. A similar pattern prevails for men with use of contraception being the most consistently associated both with radio in general as well as with radio family planning messages.

Examples of data in the Research Report:

Namibia: 61% of married women regularly exposed to radio, TV and print media are currently using contraception; compared with 25% exposed to two of those media, 20 per cent exposed to one of the media and 12 per cent exposed to no media.

Kenya: 53% of rural married women regularly exposed to radio, TV and print media are currently using contraception; compared with 42% exposed to two of those media, 33 per cent exposed to one of the media and 22 per cent exposed to no media.

Zambia: 15% of married women with no education regularly exposed to radio and TV are currently using contraception compared with 9% exposed to one of those media and 7 per cent exposed to no media.

Burkina Faso: All women regularly exposed to radio, television and print media desire a mean number of children of 3.7; compared with 4.2 for women having regular exposure to two of those media, 5.7 for one of the media, and 6.3 for no exposure to any media.

Ghana: Rural women regularly exposed to radio, television and print media desire a mean number of children of 3.9; compared with 4.2 for women having regular exposure to two of those media, 4.6 for one of the media, and 5.3 for no exposure to any media.

Madagascar: Women with no education regularly exposed to radio or television desire a mean number of children of 5.4; compared to 6.5 for women regularly exposed to one of those media, and 7.5 for no exposure to either radio or television.