Influence of Radio Health Sensitisation Programme on HIV Stigmatisation among Residents of Owerri Metropolis, Nigeria

It remains an unarguable fact that people living with HIV massively come across stigmatisation, prejudice and discrimination which kills faster than the virus itself. Thus, the fear of stigmatisation will evidently force many HIV stigmatised victims to remain silent than disclose their HIV status. The main objective of the study was to examine the influence of radio health sensitisation programme on HIV stigmatisation among residents of Owerri metropolis. The agenda setting and social learning theories served as the theoretical underpinning for the study. Survey research design was used. A sample size of 384 was derived using the Wimmer and Dominick online sample size calculator from the population of 555,500. The multi-stage cluster random sampling, involving purposive sampling techniques served as the sampling techniques with questionnaire as the instrument of data collection. The techniques required Owerri metropolis being divided into three manageable clusters. Findings of the study showed that radio health sensitisation programme on HIV stigmatisation has broadened the knowledge of the respondents on HIV stigmatisation to a high extent at a grand mean of 3.5(N=305). Also, at a grand mean of 3.4 (N=305), radio health sensitisation programme on HIV stigmatisation has influenced the behaviour of the respondents towards HIV stigmatised victims as it has induced positive behavioural changes in them. It was concluded that if there are myriads of media programmes specifically designed for mitigating HIV stigmatisation and scheduled at friendly airtimes across different media organisations, it will lead to an increased media exposure as the media constitute an effective strategy for combating HIV/AIDS-related stigma.