Roles of Community Education Programmes on the Promotion of Healthy Living practices Among Women in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined roles of community education programmes on the promotion of healthy living practices among women in Rivers State, Nigeria. Four research objectives and questions were used for the study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 1072 which include both 174 health education officers and 898 female beneficiaries in the community health education centres across the three Senatorial Districts in Rivers State. The sample size for this study was three hundred and fifty three (353) respondents which consist of 94 health education officers and 259 female beneficiaries in the health education centres in the study areas. Multistage sampling technique was adopted in selecting the sample for this study. Rivers State was clustered into three Senatorial Districts which include Rivers West, Rivers East and Rivers South-East. Twelve LGAs were randomly selected and all the community health education centres in each of the twelve local government areas were used for the study. Proportionate sampling technique was adopted in selecting 50% of the female beneficiaries from the community health education centres in the twelve Local Government Areas studied, while the entire 94 community health education offices were used for the study because their numbers were manageable. The instrument used for data collection was a closed-ended structured questionnaire titled, “Roles of Community Education Programmes on the Promotion of Healthy Living Practices among Women Questionnaire”. The reliability of the instrument was determined through a pilot study, while Cronbach Alpha Method was used to establish the reliability coefficient for each of the clusters and an average (r) value of 0.83 was obtained. The responses from the four research questions were analysed with percentage, mean and standard deviation statistic. The findings from the study revealed that community education programmes such as functional literacy, health literacy, waste management education, and sustainable sanitation education play critical roles in promoting healthy living practices among women in Rivers State to a high extent. Based on the findings, the study recommended among others, that government at all levels in partnership with Agency for Adult and Non-formal Education should regularly fund and establish more literacy centers in communities to enable more women access to knowledge and skills required to enhance healthy living practices among women