According to the authors, why are community health information campaigns often problematic in less developed countries?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ans: Lack of cultural appropriateness and cost-effectiveness have been cited as two of the most common stumbling blocks in research utilization in the global context, but (p. 1728), but as Madon et al. (2007) observe, a “bewildering constellation of social constraints and health threats” exist for less-developed regions of the world. These include, but are no means limited to: limited knowledge of preventive health practices, sporadic access to basic quality health care, structural issues related to the underfinanced, under-regulated nature of health systems, inadequate sanitation infrastructure, and the exposure to environmental contaminants.; Given the difficulties involved in addressing even the simplest of structural issues, research utilization in the global context has typically taken the form of community health information campaigns. However, research on knowledge gap theory (Viswanath & Finnegan, 2002) and diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 2003) suggests that these information-focused interventions typically increase the gaps between the health rich and the health poor rather than mitigating them. In short, individuals from higher socio-economic strata gain greater preventive knowledge from health information campaigns compared to their lower socio-economic counterparts (Dutta 2008). The case is even more pronounced in the gap between women and men (Shefner-Rogers et al. 1998).