Exposure to "Arm-Our-Youths" Cancer Health Information Campaign and Adoption of Safety-Health Measures among In-School Adolescent Girls in Anambra State

The rate at which cancer claim the lives of its victims in developing countries is becoming alarming even in the height of development in medicine and technology. Among the major causes of the chances of death by cancer is information knowledge gap among potential cancer victims. In response to need to control cancer spread, “Arm-Our-Youths” cancer information campaign introduced cancer risks and safety-measures into post-primary school education curriculum in Nigeria. This study is set to ascertain whether exposure to these health campaign messages translate into adoption of health safety measures among in-school adolescent girls. Survey method and FGD were adopted in studying 367 in-school girls from 11 girls’ secondary schools selected through multi-stage sampling technique and 21 discussants purposively selected for the study. The study was premised on the Social Exchange Theory and Health belief model. Findings revealed that although respondents are well exposed to the “Arm-Our-Youths” cancer information campaign messages, their adoption of health safety measures were low. Exposure to this campaign did not translate to adoption of safety health practices among the respondents. It was recommended that while more organisations and government should invest in more campaign to get the people earlier informed, efforts should be made to convincingly pass these messages to the recipients such that it will command adoption of health safety measures among them.