Effective Communication Strategy and Sustainable Health Management in the Rural Environment of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Research works reveal that 70% of Nigerian population lives in rural areas. In many cases, rural health sustainability and maintenance of environment variation due to climatic change remain largely untapped by reason of rural ignorance. Tree planting is unpracticed in rural areas. Again, all round rural defecation attitudes, manually dug shallow wells etc. turnout as water ponds which breed mosquitoes particularly during wet seasons. These place considerable strain on naturaland material resources, impacting negatively on economic growth as well as health management. The researchers see effective communication strategy using media broadcast as a tool for awareness campaigns in communities on laudable government interventions on the maintenance of healthy lifestyles. Taking the above as a base, the study used a descriptive survey design to investigate the rural dwellers health habits under climatic changing conditions. The population comprised rural dwellers in AkwaIbom State riverine areas. The sample also comprised 100 rural dwellers from the four local government areas that make up the riverine areas. The study was postulated on one research question and one hypothesis. The result revealed that the mean score ratings for problem cases reported by the health workers indicated the cases of malaria and diarrhea as the highest. It further indicated that there was no significant difference between rural dwellers in most of their healthy living habits based on their exposure or lack of exposure to government’s interventions on the creation of awareness. The study recommends the utilization of broadcast media to effectively create the required changes.

Keywords: Rural Dwellers, Health Management, Sustainability, Broadcast Media, Effective Communication