Health Information Seeking Among Women In A Peri-Urban Community: A Study Of Market Women In Madina.

ABSTRACT

This “study is focused on exploring the health information-seeking behaviour of market women at Madina. The objectives of the study were to determine health information needs of respondents, examine the sources of health information, examine how market women evaluate the content and sources of health information and find out the barriers market women face seeking health information

The study adopted a survey design. The population for the study was 1020 and a sample size of 102 of market women who sells in shops and market leaders were used. The research adopted convenience sampling technique and snow-ball technique to collect data from market women and market leaders respectively. The mixed methods approach was employed for the study. The personal interview and questionnaire were used to collect data from market leaders and market women. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyse the quantitative data and the content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data that was gathered form interviews.

The findings showed that among the 102 respondents, 27.5% of them are 31- 40 years of age, 24.5% are between the ages of 41-50 years of age, 11.8% of the respondents are above 60 years of age among others. The study also revealed the majority of the market women have Junior High School (JHS) education with 36.3% of them admitting that they are JHS certificate holder and followed by Senior High School with 24.5%. The study also revealed that health information needs of market women in the top rank are cure with 90.2% of respondents and treatments with 89% of respondents and the least specialists or specialise facilities. The study clearly indicates the major sources of health information with radio/ television recorded the highest and Newspaper/ magazine

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recorded the lowest. The study show that the major use of information by respondents was to cure sickness. It is clear from the study that the barriers to health information seeking includes; illiteracy, finances, among others.

Recommendations were put forward to enhance health information-seeking behaviour among Madina market women which included; teach-back technique and regular health campaign in market centres by authorities. In conclusion, there was a marginal level of awareness of health information awareness among market women in Madina and there is a need to increase the level of awareness through a campaign.