Evaluating Public Health Campaigns on Social Media using the Health Belief Model: Evidence from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate how four health campaigns—Corona Virus (Covid-19) at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sehat Sahulat Programme, Integrated Vector Control Programme, and Insulin for Life Programme—impact social media users' vulnerability, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and severity of health issues. Another focus of this study was how Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's social media users process the campaign content. Therefore, this study used the health belief model to better grasp the problem. The quantitative method was used in this study and a survey of 400 respondents from KP's 12 districts was undertaken using multistage sampling to get quantitative data. Using the independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA, the research has found significant and insignificant differences across the demographics and exposure to social media concerning vulnerability, severity of health issues, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, attitude towards health information, and influence of indirect communication channels. The result shows no significant correlation between exposure to social media and vulnerability, the severity of health issues, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, attitude towards health information, and influence of indirect communication channels.