Entertainment-education and HIV/AIDS prevention: a field experiment in Tanzania.

Entertainment-education is the process of designing and implementing an entertainment program to increase audience members' knowledge about a social issue, create more favorable attitudes, and change their overt behaviors regarding the social issue. The results of a field experiment in Tanzania to measure the effects of a long-running entertainment-education radio soap opera, Twende na Wakati (Let's Go with the Times), on knowledge, attitudes, and adoption of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevention behaviors are presented. Multiple independent measures of effects and the experimental design of this study confer strong internal and external validity regarding the results of this investigation. The effects of the radio program in Tanzania include (1) a reduction in the number of sexual partners by both men and women, and (2) increased condom adoption. The radio soap opera influenced these behavioral variables through certain intervening variables, including (1) self-perception of risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, (2) self-efficacy with respect to preventing HIV/AIDS, (3) interpersonal communication about HIV/AIDS, and (4) identification with, and role modeling of, the primary characters in the radio soap opera.

Effects of an entertainment-education radio soap opera on family planning behavior in Tanzania.

An entertainment-education radio soap opera introduced in Tanzania in 1993 was evaluated by means of a field experimental design in which the radio program was broadcast by seven mainland stations of Radio Tanzania. An eighth station broadcast alternative programming from 1993 to 1995, its listenership serving as a comparison area in which contemporaneous changes in family planning adoption were measured. The soap opera was subsequently broadcast nationwide from 1995 to 1997. Data about the effects of the radio soap opera were gathered in five annual surveys of about 2,750 households in the comparison and the treatment areas and from a sample of new family planning adopters in 79 health clinics. The soap opera had strong behavioral effects on family planning adoption; it increased listeners' self-efficacy regarding family planning adoption and influenced listeners to talk with their spouses and peers about contraception.

PIP: This article evaluates the effects of an entertainment-education radio soap opera, "Twende na Wakati" (Let's Go with the Time), introduced in Tanzania in 1993 on the adoption of family planning methods. The soap opera was evaluated by means of a large-scale field experimental design in which the radio program was broadcast in seven mainland stations. An eight-station broadcast was added from 1993 to 1995 and its listenership served as the basis in which contemporaneous changes in planning adoption were measured. Subsequently, the soap opera was broadcast nationwide from 1995 to 1997. In determining the effect of the soap opera, five annual surveys were conducted. Included in the survey were about 2750 households in the comparison and the treatment areas and from a sample of family planning adopter in 79 health clinics. Results of the survey indicate that the soap opera had strong behavioral effects on family planning adoption. Additionally, the incidence increases listeners' self-efficacy regarding family planning adoption and influences listeners to talk with their spouses and peers about contraception.