Theorizing Child Nutrition and Survival Communication from a Nigerian Perspective: Lessons from Exclusive Breastfeeding Study in Ogun State
摘要
Health communication and health promotion are clear pathways to ensuring that people have sufficient knowledge needed to advance healthy living. The understanding of key issues in health, which is at the heart of health promotion, helps people to reduce risks of infection, manage chronic illnesses and generally make life choices that help to ensure healthy living. These life choices are sometimes about avoiding harmful behaviours such as substance abuse and irresponsible reproductive health behaviour or adopting more beneficial and healthful practices such as adopting exclusive breastfeeding and proper complementary feeding. As Glanz and Rimer (2005) rightly argued, the success in health promotion is defined by a form of change in behaviour. This change comes at different levels including individual, community, and organizational. However, health promotion campaigns are not always successful. The most successful campaigns are those that are based on sound theoretical framework and tested campaign planning models. To achieve the desired result in health campaigns and health promotion, there is the need for a full understanding of the behavioural patterns of individuals as well as the environmental contexts in which those individuals live (Glanz & Rimer, 2005). Personal characteristics as well as community and institutional allegiances have influence on the way people react to and accept health messages.