Adoption of Preventive Measures Out of Gastroenteritis (Infectious Diarrhoea) as Communicational Effect of Science News and Social Support in Karachi

Abstract

Action practice about preventive measures such as ensuring clean drinking water, installation of water filter devices as a result of gastroenteritis and stimulated by the effect of newspaper news reading during the epidemic was analyzed. As per compiled results from the tabulated data generated with the help of a structured questionnaire, various behaviors of respondents as an outcome of newspaper exposure have been studied. These include trustworthiness of newspaper, knowledge level of respondents about gastroenteritis epidemic news, their perception of the causes of disease gastroenteritis, diffusion of health-related news/message/ the advice of doctors or news messages among respondents, social support to patients, respondents’ attitude to adopt preventive measures and adoption of preventive means/techniques as the rational outcome of the communication. The level of newspaper exposure influences the diffusion and effect of reading different topical news as most of the respondents see newspapers as a valid source of information. They read the news of the gastroenteritis epidemic in newspapers which made them knowledgeable about the causes of gastroenteritis. Doctors’ advice through news stories about the causes and prevention of gastroenteritis and adopting remedial/preventive steps were noticed among the respondents. 76.6 percent of respondents spend 4 to 12 hours while 18.9 percent of respondents spend 16 or more hours with friends and relatives in a week and share information on health-related issues. Hence, 71.1 percent of respondents use boiled water as a precautionary measure, 14.4 percent of respondents installed water filter device, 6.1 percent respondents start using bottles of water while 4.4 percent of respondents mentioned other measures. The study, consistent with social support theory, shows that relatives and family members are also an important source of information and motivation in taking preventive measures out of gastroenteritis.