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PART 1 CHAPTER VI
1.6.1.
Main Sources of Information
In
recent years, the idea of increasing men’s participation in family
planning has received attention worldwide. However, until now men’s
needs in sexual health information and education have been largely
neglected. In many countries, including Armenia, reproductive
health programs and activities focus mainly on women’s health.
Generally
speaking, Armenian men, especially adolescents and young people, still
do not have access to adequate information on issues related to family
planning, sexual and reproductive health. The “Epidemiological survey
on Sexual and Reproductive Health of Armenian Adolescents”,
conducted in 1996 by the Armenian Family Health Association with support
of the UNFPA revealed an urgent need to sex education and counseling in
teenagers. However, human sexuality is not included yet in the school
curricula and sexual health counseling is not widely available for men.
The
unique “Sexual Health Center for Children and Adolescents” has been
just recently opened in Yerevan (March, 1998) at the Republican Hospital
for Children, in collaboration with the Armenian Family Health
Association. Adults also
have the opportunity for medical counseling about sexual health in the
“Center for Family Planning and Sexual Health” in Yerevan. Outside
Yerevan, sexual health counseling and reproductive medical services for
men do not exist.
In
this study we have identified the most important first sources of
information of men about generally known methods of family planning, in
particularly, about condoms, the withdrawal method and IUDs (Figure
1.6.1).
Friends
from peer groups were found to be the most important source of
information about condoms (66%) and the withdrawal method (66%). The
most
important sources of information about IUDs were sexual partners (39%)
and health providers (26%). Teachers and parents rarely were sources of
the first information about these family planning methods.
This research has shown (Figure 1.6.2) that among the means of mass media, TV was the first and most important source of information about sexuality and sexual health (74%). The next most important sources of information for 71% of respondents were printed educational materials, including magazines (27%), books/brochures (22%) and newspapers (21%). Only 19% of men received information about sexual health related issues through radio.
1.6.2.
Access to the Mass Media and Print Formats One of the encouraging observations of this survey was the availability of TV for the great majority of survey respondents (95.5%), and radio for more than one half (50.5%). Most men (88%) watch TV regularly, usually in the evening or at night (Figure 1.6.3). The average viewing hour was about 9 o’clock P.M (Mean = 20.9±2.5). The most popular mentioned TV channels (Table 1.6.1.) are Russian ORT (75.5%), Armenian Channel 1 (72%), Russian RTR (66%), and Armenian Channel 2 (52%). In fact, most men (80%) only occasionally hear radio programs, and mainly in the morning (Figure 1.6.4). The most popular mentioned radio-programs (Table 1.6.2.) are “The recent news” (62%), the “Musical program” (56%), and “The Family” (42%). One of the alarming observations of this study is the fact that, in general, men have little access to newspapers, magazines or educational literature about issues related to public health (Figure 1.6.5), despite there being a high literacy rate for the country at large.
Among
the most popular newspapers and magazines were “Spid-Info”, in
Russian language,
“Health care”, in Armenian, and
“Woman and Man”, in
Armenian
(Table 1.6.3.).
Some men read second-hand out of print issues of the Russian magazine
“Zdorovje”. It should be noted that Russian education was very
common in Armenia before the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a result,
a significant proportion of population still prefers to read and write
in the Russian language. For a further analytical purpose, we constructed a special “score of access to the mass media and press” based on the use of TV, radio and educational literature. This score was based on the scale from 0 to 3, and an average was 1.49 (SD=±0.54). According to the level of this score we identified three categories of survey respondents (Figure 1.6.6): men with little access to the mass media and press (9%), with an average access (57%), and with good access (34%). The assessment showed that men with a high level socio-economic status had better access to the mass media and educational literature as compared with men having low or average status (Figure 1.6.7). Access to the mass media and educational literature was correlated with the age of men. The score of access was lower in men below 30 years of age, as compared with older men. Men with a university education had better access to mass media and printed materials as compared with respondents who completed general school or college. The score of access was lower in rural men as compared to urban.
1.6.3.
Opinions of Men about the Role of Mass Media for
Public
Education on FP/SRH According to the opinions of more than one half of the survey respondents, TV, books, brochures, magazines, newspapers and radio were the most expedient means used for public education on sexual and reproductive health (Figure 1.6.8 and Table 1.6.4.). Thus, in Armenia, the existing mass media has an insufficient role in public health education. The socio-economic and culture realities of the present life require special attention to the potential role of mass media and printed formats as very important sources of information on sexuality, sexual and reproductive health. |