Health professionals have recognized and embraced the importance of tailored health messages and health campaigns that are based on social support groups that target populations and help to reduce the gaps in delivering health information to different groups. In the attempt to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in developing countries such as Uganda, study findings indicate that issues such as perception of risk, individual knowledge, attitudes and emotions, and policy issues have been critical in the HIV-related campaigns that seek to promote behavioral change (Kaufman, Cornish, Zimmerman, & Johnson, 2014). In addition, the HIV/AIDS infection rate in the country remains high because people find it difficult to choose a different way of life and focus on behaviors that will prevent the spread because of their perception of the risk of the disease due to lack of information and feelings of insufficiency (Hasler, 2013). Therefore, the main factors to consider in developing health campaigns include perceptions of risk, perceptions of self, and perception of costs and benefits which provide a strong foundation for the development of guidelines that enrich the health campaign design. This can be achieved through a slogan such as: Knowledge and hope are the best prevention of HIV/AIDS infection and its lifetime burden.
Perceived risk should be considered in the HIV/AIDS campaign to enable the target populations to understand the negative effects of HIV/AIDS and sexual behavior risks (Noroozinejad et al., 2013). With respect to the aspect of risk perception, the campaign messages should be designed in a manner that incorporates aspects such as statistical data, comparisons, and testimonials to stimulate feelings of concern and motivate change rather than lead to denial and avoidance. The campaign’s perception of risk involves a mixture of the awareness of the personal risk of HIV exposure and general subjective feelings about an individual’s state of health along with the perception of the collective risk it poses to the society in relation to aspects such as homeless children and burden of treatment. Based on the health belief model, the presented assumption related to the role of perceived risk is that individuals will adopt preventive actions when they acknowledge that the consequences of the disease are severe (Hanan, 2009). However, the perception of risk also depends on the individual's own self-perception and thus it should also be taken into consideration.
In the domain of perception of self, the expectation of self-efficacy should be considered to foster the belief that certain course of actions will produce desired outcomes. According to Ruiter, Kessels, Peters and Kok (2014), research shows that efficacy is related to presenting coping information and increasing perceptions of response effectiveness that help to promote protective behavioral actions. Self-efficacy promotes the idea that individuals can self-manage which empowers people to make important health-related behavior changes because they believe in their capability to adopt desired behavioral changes.
Perceptions of cost and benefits relate to how individuals assess advantages and disadvantages of adopting recommended behaviors. The perceptions of cost and benefits can be explained on the basis of the theory of reasoned action which highlights that intention for behavioral change is influenced by the risk reduction benefits vis-à-vis the costs of risky behavior (Hanan, 2009). For instance, educating individuals about the effectiveness of using condoms to prevent HIV infection highlights its perceived benefits which can help overcome the perceived barriers such as the cost of treating the disease. This will help orient the people towards making decisions based on the expected and perceived benefits of the behavioral changes.
A combination of informing the people about the risks that come with the spread of the disease and not adopting behavioral change, increasing the feelings of self-sufficiency and ability in adopting behavioral change, informing people about the benefits of adopting behavioral change vis-à-vis the cost associated with the continued spread of HIV/AIDS is critical to the formulation of effective health campaigns in Uganda. This combination is effective in initiating behavioral change based on a rational approach which will directly impact the intrinsic motivational aspects in individuals and the country’s population.
References
Hanan, M. A. (2009). HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns: a critical analysis. Canadian Journal of Media Studies, 5(1), 129-158.
Hasler, T. (2013). HIV/AIDS communication strategies in northern Uganda: development workers opinions on what works (Master thesis). Kansas State University. Retrieved from http://jmc.k-state.edu/graduate/TravisHasler2013.pdf
Kaufman, M. R., Cornish, F., Zimmerman, R. S., & Johnson, B. T. (2014). Health behavior change models for HIV prevention and AIDS care: practical recommendations for a multi-level approach. JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 66, S250-S258.
Noroozinejad, G., Yarmohamadi, M., Bazrafkan, F., Sehat, M., Rezazadeh, M., & Ahmadi, K. (2013). Perceived risk modifies the effect of HIV knowledge on sexual risk behaviors. Frontiers in Public Health, 1, 33.
Ruiter, R. A., Kessels, L. T., Peters, G. J. Y., & Kok, G. (2014). Sixty years of fear appeal research: Current state of the evidence. International Journal of Psychology, 49(2), 63-70.
