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Impact of Public Health Awareness Events on Participation in Preventive Health Programmes among Adults in Nigeria

Abstract

Participation in preventive health programmes is essential for promoting early disease detection, reducing exposure to health risks, encouraging healthy behaviours, and improving population health outcomes. Adults in Nigeria may have limited participation in preventive health programmes because of inadequate awareness, financial constraints, geographical barriers, competing work and family responsibilities, misconceptions about preventive healthcare, and limited knowledge of available services. Public health awareness events, such as health fairs, community health campaigns, public lectures, screening events, health walks, exhibitions, and health promotion activities, provide opportunities to disseminate health information and connect adults with preventive health services. These events can increase awareness of disease prevention, screening, immunization, healthy lifestyles, and available healthcare programmes while providing opportunities for direct interaction with healthcare professionals. Against this background, this study investigates the impact of public health awareness events on participation in preventive health programmes among adults in Nigeria. The study will be anchored on the Health Belief Model, Social Ecological Model, and Social Cognitive Theory. The Health Belief Model explains how perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and cues to action may influence adults' willingness to participate in preventive health programmes. The Social Ecological Model emphasizes the influence of individual, interpersonal, community, organizational, and environmental factors on participation in preventive healthcare. Social Cognitive Theory explains how social interaction, observational learning, modelling, reinforcement, and self-efficacy may influence health knowledge and preventive health behaviour. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how public health awareness events may influence participation in preventive health programmes among adults in Nigeria. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental or analytical cross-sectional research design. The study population will comprise adults aged 18 years and above residing in selected communities across Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, local government areas, communities, and eligible participants. Public health awareness events will be assessed using indicators such as frequency of events, attendance, event duration, range of health topics covered, availability of health professionals, health education sessions, screening activities, distribution of educational materials, community mobilization, use of local languages, interactive activities, referral information, and follow-up arrangements. Participation in preventive health programmes will be assessed using indicators such as attendance at health screening, immunization services where applicable, health education programmes, cancer screening, blood pressure and blood glucose checks, family planning services, vaccination activities, healthy lifestyle programmes, infectious disease prevention programmes, and other relevant preventive health services. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, preventive-health participation assessment tools, event attendance registers, screening records, referral records, programme reports, and relevant community health documents. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize participants' characteristics, exposure to public health awareness events, and participation in preventive health programmes. Inferential statistical techniques, including chi-square tests, t-tests, correlation analysis, and logistic or multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the impact of public health awareness events on participation in preventive health programmes. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, participation rates before and after implementation of awareness events may be compared with those of a comparison community or group to determine changes associated with the intervention. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that public health awareness events have a significant positive impact on participation in preventive health programmes among adults in Nigeria. Adults exposed to public health awareness events are expected to demonstrate higher participation in preventive health programmes than adults without comparable exposure. The combination of health education, community mobilization, direct interaction with healthcare professionals, and access to screening or referral services may improve awareness and encourage preventive healthcare participation. Public health awareness events may also provide opportunities to address misconceptions, explain the benefits of early detection, and guide participants toward appropriate healthcare facilities and services. However, inadequate funding, poor community mobilization, irregular organization, shortage of healthcare personnel, limited screening equipment, transportation barriers, low awareness of events, and weak referral and follow-up systems may reduce effectiveness. The study therefore expects regular, accessible, well-publicized, and adequately resourced public health awareness events to contribute significantly to improved participation in preventive health programmes among adults in Nigeria. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on public health awareness events, preventive healthcare participation, community health promotion, health education, disease prevention, health screening, community mobilization, and public health in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, state ministries of health, local government health authorities, primary healthcare centres, healthcare professionals, community health workers, community leaders, development partners, and policymakers regarding strategies for increasing participation in preventive health programmes. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for strengthening public health awareness events, improving community mobilization, integrating screening and referral services into awareness activities, using local-language communication, improving event publicity, ensuring adequate staffing and equipment, and establishing effective follow-up mechanisms for participants requiring additional preventive or clinical services across Nigeria.

Keywords: Public health awareness events, preventive health programmes, health participation, adults, health education, health promotion, community mobilization, disease prevention, health screening, preventive healthcare, Nigeria, public health.