ABSTRACT

The rationale for this project is to design a public health communication strategy for campaign on sickle cell anemia in Ghana. This project has been necessitated by the alarming rate at which the condition is occurring. It is generally estimated that 2% of children born in Ghana each year have a form of the sickle cell disease. This proportion is more than that of HIV/AIDS in the country (Ohene-Frimpong, 2011).

In recent times, due to technological advancement, it is possible to determine the sickle cell status of infants whilst still at a foetal stage, for parents to decide on what to do before the child is born. Despite this, Kootey-Ahulu (2011), a renowned physician consultant has stated that the best way of getting a generation free of the disease is to avoid intermarriage between two people with the disease or a trait of it.

The purpose of this study is to have an in-depth knowledge of public health campaign methods for awareness creation through a literature review. The information gathered would then be used as a guide to design a communication strategy to create awareness among Ghanaians who are between 25-40 years on sickle cell anemia. Some of the areas that would be looked into include the following: how to plan and execute effective health communication strategy, knowledge on sickle cell anemia disease, what has been done to educate and create awareness on it as well as its successes or otherwise. Ultimately, this study would result in a project that would device mediums appropriate for use in educating and creating awareness on sickle cell anemia disease in Ghana. It is expected that when implemented, the impact would result in a raise from 21% to 65% in the knowledge level among the target audience, within a year.

ix

a. Study Goals

Three specific goals would be emphasized in this study:

i) To gain an in-depth understanding of the use of public health campaign for awareness creation and education in general through interviews with experts.

ii) To gain insight on the knowledge level among Ghanaians between the ages of 25-40 on the sickle cell disease by conducting a baseline survey.

Data gathered from the interviews and baseline surveys would then be used as a guide to assist in the design of an effective communication strategy. The information elicited would help in clearly defining who the target audience should be and what appropriate mediums and messages to use in order to raise the awareness level from 21% to about 65% within a year.

b. Assignments to Be Undertaken

i) A detailed literature review on:

(a) Public health communication campaign methods

(b) Public health communication campaign on sickle cell anemia.

ii) Conduct in-depth interviews with a communication expert, sickle cell condition advocate and

a medical specialist in sickle cell disease.

iii) Conduct a survey of unmarried people within the ages of 25 to 40 years.

iv) Annotate at least 10 articles with bibliographic citations. Information gathered from these three assignments would be used in the formative research to aid in drawing up an effective communication strategy. The knowledge gained would help outline work that has already been done in the area to be studied and its successes or otherwise in order to make an informed decision on an appropriate strategy to adopt.