‘Expose rural women to abortion-related communication’

Kolkata, March 29 (IANS) More exposure to abortion-related messages will give rural women more accurate knowledge about the issue, says a study conducted in four districts of Bihar and Jharkhand.

Behaviour change communication (BCC) interventions can help in improving knowledge about safe abortion, especially on complex issues such as legal gestational age limit, according to the study conducted by Ipas Development Foundation (IDF) in collaboration with the governments of Bihar and Jharkhand.

Higher level of exposure to abortion-related messages was related to more accurate knowledge about abortion, the study said.

The authors of the study published in BMJ Open journal are Sushanta K. Banerjee, Kathryn Andersen, Erin Pearson, Janardan Warvadekar, Danish U. Khan and Sangeeta Batra.

Banerjee said: "The study reveals that rural women should be given these messages at least six times so that they comprehend the key messages on abortion correctly. This needs to be kept in mind while planning communication initiatives on abortion for women."

The study involved married women aged 15-49 years.

The communication campaign was centred on a fictional young woman called "Kalyani", meaning auspicious. Using "Kalyani" as the protagonist, two different communication models were introduced to increase awareness and service usage among women.

These are high-intensity model (HIM) and a low-intensity model (LIM).

The HIM intervention consisted of communication activities including interpersonal communication through group meetings and interactive games, wall signs, street dramas and distribution of low-literacy reference materials

LIM intervention was focused on increasing access to safe abortion services through community intermediaries and wall signs.

The HIM intervention was found to be more effective than the LIM intervention in increasing comprehensive knowledge about safe abortion services.

"BCC efforts to increase comprehensive abortion knowledge should be paired with increased availability of women-centred abortion services at the primary health centre level to ensure that women have access to high-quality services," the study notes, adding the findings cannot be generalised to the whole of Bihar and Jharkhand.

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