EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF THEATRE FOR DEVELOMENT (TFD) IN COMMUNICATING HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS VACCINATION (HPV) AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL GIRLS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper evaluated the experimental study of the influence of Theatre for Development (TFD) in communicating Health Preventive Menstrual Vaccination (HPMV) among junior secondary school students in Anambra state. This relatively new health practice has not been fully adopted by the people, hence the need for this study. The researchers aimed to determine whether TfD can effectively create awareness about HPMV, and to examine the correlation between TfD and development of positive attitudes towards the practice. This study was anchored on the Diffusion of Innovation theory. The study area is Anambra state, Nigeria, and the research design adopted was survey approach. The population of the study was 112,087 junior secondary school students in Anambra state, from which a sample size of 384 students was drawn. The students were exposed to theatrical performance on HPMV in their school environments. Thereafter, a questionnaire was administered as a research instrument to gather respondents' views on both HPMV and TfD. Data obtained from the study were presented in simple frequency distribution tables and subsequently analysed. The results revealed that TfD was affective in encouraging the students to adopt the therapeutic behavior associated with HPMV practice. The study recommended that government and None Governmental Organisations (NGOs) should scale up the use of TfD as a health communication strategy.