An assessment of COVID-19 health education and information dissemination platforms in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

In South Africa, several measures have been taken by government to prevent and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Interventions implemented include, community education, establishing lab testing capacity, social distancing, promoting regular handwashing, closure of schools and a ban on mass gathering. Further measures like closing the borders to international travel, intensified curtailment of human interactions through a national lockdown, door-to-door screening, surveillance, testing, isolation and contact tracing in the community have been implemented to curtail community spread of the disease. Other planned interventions comprise identifying hotspots, strengthening medical care, expanding burial capacity, administering vaccines once available, as well as supporting ongoing surveillance for new cases.

Factors like level of literacy, language, poverty or inequality which influence information uptake might have a more pronounced effect in rural communities. A systematic and dynamic approach in disseminating information about the COVID-19 pandemic is needed especially in rural areas with little or no literacy levels. There is a greater need to ensure that the community understands the pandemic in less technical terms. In addition, due to the rapidly evolving nature of the epidemic, there is a need for dynamism in timeous uptake of the Government’s latest directive by communities. This will largely rely on well-established and effective health information systems.

AIM: We propose to investigate whether the official COVID-19 health promotion and information dissemination strategies employed by the South Africa government overlaps (aligns) with the platforms used by community members to receive COVID-19 or general health related information; and explore how community members understand and interpret the information shared via different communication platforms in order to implement targeted health education which will ensure that content is age-, gender-, location-, and population responsive and health promotion activities are built into existing community resources.

OBJECTIVES
1. Conduct a desktop review of current COVID-19 health promotion, information and communication platforms utilised by the government of South Africa and the lessons these platforms provide particularly for rural settings. The main aim of the review will be to assess the outcome and impact of interventions, programmes, communications and projects implemented by government and assess progress towards interventions conducted thus far.
2. Explore individual and community sources of COVID-19 health promotion and information and assess knowledge and understanding of the benefits of COVID-19 health promotion and interventions.
3. Explore perceptions, narratives and experiences of COVID-19 health promotion and communication including compliance, content, and language.
4. Explore local cultures that could support and promote or hinder COVID-19 related health promotion, information, and health communication in a rural community.
5. Investigate psychosocial - age, gender and physical similarities and differences in the narratives of community members in order to identify appropriate community-based health promotion supportive structures.