PART 2

CHAPTER V

ACCESS TO INFORMATION ABOUT SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

2.5.1. Main Sources of Information

The main sources of information for women about family planning, sexuality and sexual health among the different means of mass media and print formats are demonstrated in Figure 2.5.1. It was found that TV programs were the first and most important sources of information (77%). The next most important sources of information for 68% of respondents were print formats, including magazines (18%), books/brochures (26%) and newspapers (24%).

2.5.2. Access to the Mass Media and Print Formats

The availability of TV was quite high (96%). About 58% of women had a radio. Most respondents of the survey (90%) were watching TV regularly (Figure 2.5.2.), usually in the evening or at night (Figure 2.5.3.). The average viewing hour was about 8 o’clock P.M (Mean = 19.6±0.41).

The most popular TV channels (Table 2.5.1) are Armenian Channel 1 (85%), Russian ORT (83%), Russian RTR (71%), and Armenian Channel 2 (60%). 

In fact, most women (63%) only occasionally hear radio programs (Figure 2.5.4.), and mainly in the morning (Figure 2.5.5.).

The most popular radio-programs (Table 2.5.2.) are “Musical program” (84%), “The recent news” (60%), and “The Family” (39%).

In general, women have little access to newspapers, magazines or educational literature concerning issues related to public health (Figure 2.5.6.) despite a high literacy rate for the country at large.

Among the most popular newspapers and magazines were “Health care” (32%), “Spid-Info” (25%) and  “Woman and Man” (13%) (Table 2.5.3.).

For further analytical purpose we constructed 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 determined to be 1.53 (SD=±0.77). According to the level of this score we identified three categories of survey respondents (Figure 2.5.7.): women with little access to the mass media and press (6.5%), with an average access (45.5%), and with good access (48%).

The women with a high level socio-economic status had better access to the mass media and educational literature as compared with those who have low or average status (Figure 2.5.8.). The score of access was lower in young women less than 24 years of age as compared with older women. Women 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 women as compared to urban.

2.5. 3. Opinions of Women about the Role of Mass Media for

Public Education on FP/SRH

Table 2.5.4. and Figure 2.5.9. demonstrate opinions of Armenian women about the role of mass media in public education on FP/SRH.

According to the opinions of more than one half of the survey respondents, TV, radio, books, brochures, newspapers and magazines were the most expedient means used for public education on sexual and reproductive health.