COMMUNITY HEALTH COMMUNICATION: CASE STUDIES OF SUBDISTRICT HEALTH PROMOTION HOSPITALS IN SUPHAN BURI, UBON RATCHATHANI AND KALASIN PROVINCES

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop health communications among three communities in Suphan Buri, Ubon Ratchathani, and Kalasin provinces, Thailand. This is a participative action research. The total numbers of 30 volunteers were purposively selected from each community consisting of offcials from subdistrict health promotion hospitals, community leaders, and villagers in order to respond to survey questionnaires via the Internet, or be interviewed in case they could not gain access to the Internet. The obtained information based on the framework of communication strategies covered Information about the communicators, the contents and format of communications, the communication media and channels, the information receivers, and the communication, society and culture contexts. After that, they participated in designing communication strategies, with the research team being responsible for production of the contents. The activities covered six months from October 2021 to March 2022. The communication was evaluated with the use of focus group discussion.

The communication strategies that the community participated in planning were as follows:

The information senders determined the health information sources from the Department of Health, COVID-19 Information Center, the Department of Mental Health, the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, the interviews of expert doctors from SHPH, and Thai traditional medicine practitioners in the villages.

The information receivers were classified by age and gender. Those in the working age were classified based on their occupations. Those in the elder group were classified as the healthy elderly and elderly with chronic disease. In addition, consideration was given to the group of information receivers who could gain access to the Internet, and the group that could not gain access to the Internet or rarely open their channels for receiving information from the Internet.

Regarding the contents and formats of information, the focus was on matters concerning COVID-19, seasonal diseases, age-based diseases, and prevalent diseases in the community. As for the format of information, there were diversified information formats, namely, passages or articles, links, videos, pictures, graphic, cartoons, close circuit voices, community radio media, and personal media, all of which were produced based on the needs of each information receiver group and the objectives of communications.

Regarding the media and communication channels, all types of information were produced in the formats of articles, graphics and info graphics, video clips, picture albums, and public relations news link. They would be firstly distributed via Facebook of SHPH, lines, and close circuit voices or radio media. After that, the health volunteers would make door-to-door visits to inform and invite the villagers to register to receive COVID-19 vaccination via QR Code of SHPH. All information were selected to be broadcasted via close circuit voices or radio broadcast every morning for the target groups who rarely used the internet or the elderly who were inconvenient to read the information to receive the information like those in the other groups.

The health communication strategy developed with community participation was shown to have benefits for community health. Within six months, 96 percent of the target population had received a COVID-19 vaccine. Moreover, a survey indicated increased exposure to health information, especially hospital Facebook page directly as a result of the communication strategy. The results of interviewing representatives of each sample group revealed that the use of online media, original media, and personal media enabled the villagers to gain knowledge and understanding, confidence, and have the health behaviors in accordance with the communication objectives.