Abstract:

The study carried out an assessment of the perceptions of health professionals in Nigeria on the awareness messaging on COVID-19 directed at the public using the SMS (Short Message Service) Technology. The researcher focused on health professionals in the metropolitan areas of Nigeria as the respondents. A structured questionnaire titled “health professionals’ perception on awareness of messaging on COVID-19” was used to collect data from the respondents. The mode of data collection was a questionnaire survey administered online. The findings suggest that health professionals who participated in the survey have a very positive perception of the usefulness and appropriateness, coverage, and impact of the COVID-19 broadcast messages from the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC); their responses show that the short messages were sent to Nigerians from different backgrounds and locations to inform the populace about the outbreak of COVID-19, prevention, knowledge about early symptoms, how to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in case of infection and what to do in case of emergency. Additionally, the research outcomes show that SMS broadcast was the leading channel of information dissemination and reception for COVID-19 response as against the traditional channel of information dissemination on radio, TV, and others. These findings have highlighted the importance and value of digital health services such as SMS technology in responding to health emergencies.

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