Mass media exposure and women's household decision-making capacity in 30 sub-Saharan African countries: analysis of demographic and health surveys

Seidu, Abdul-Aziz, Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku, Hagan, John Elvis, Ameyaw, Edward Kwabena, Abodey, Eric, Odoi, Amanda, Agbaglo, Ebenezer, Sambah, Francis, Tackie, Vivian, and Schack, Thomas (2020) Mass media exposure and women's household decision-making capacity in 30 sub-Saharan African countries: analysis of demographic and health surveys. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. 581614.

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Abstract

Background: Women's household decision-making capacity is an essential component of their empowerment which include decisions related to personal health care, large household purchase and family visitations. Despite research evidence acknowledging mass media’s influences on women’s empowerment, including their ability to take household decisions, empirical data through multi-country comparison on mass media exposure and women’s decision making capacity are sparse. This study sought to assess the association between exposure to mass media (television, radio and newspaper/magazine) and women’s household decision-making capacity in 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Materials and Methods: Data from current Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted in 30 countries in SSA from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2016 were used. Binary Logistic Regression analysis was used to assess the association between mass media exposure and women’s household decision-making capacity in SSA. Results were presented using crude odds ratios (COR) and adjusted odds ratios (AOR). Results: Women who watched television almost every day had higher capacity to take household decisions, compared to those who did not watch television at all. Women who read newspaper/magazine less than once a week were less likely to take household decisions compared to those who never read newspaper/magazine. However, there was no association between exposure to radio and household decision-making capacity. Regarding the covariates, age, level of education, wealth index, occupation, and parity showed significant associations with women’s household decision-making capacity. Conclusion: Findings stressed the positive contribution of mass media in enhancing women’s household decision-making capacity in SSA. Viewing television, a model of mass media, is a very powerful conduit to enhance the household decision-making capacity of women. The use of mass media, especially television in communicating the relevance and ways of achieving household decision-making capacity for all women in SSA is paramount and perhaps, in other low and middle-income countries of the world. Interest groups that require greater attention are women with less exposure to television as well as women in their early reproductive age, the poor, women who are not working and rural residents.

Item ID: 66668
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1664-1078
Keywords: demographic and health survey, household decision-making capacity, mass media, public health, sub-Saharan Africa, women’s health
Copyright Information: Copyright © 2020 Seidu, Ahinkorah, Hagan, Ameyaw, Abodey, Odoi, Agbaglo, Sambah, Tackie and Schack. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Date Deposited: 25 May 2021 00:34
FoR Codes: 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420606 Social determinants of health @ 50%
52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5205 Social and personality psychology > 520501 Community psychology @ 50%
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