Mass Media Campaigns Effective for Condom Use and HIV Knowledge

Condoms

Mass media campaigns can effectively promote condom use and knowledge about HIV infection, according to results of a meta-analysis involving more than 140,000 people. Such campaigns proved more effective in countries that scored lower on the human development index score.

Mass media campaigns emerged early in the HIV epidemic as a tool to promote condom use and increase knowledge of HIV prevention and transmission. To determine how effective these campaigns are and to identify factors that favor success, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of HIV media campaigns from 1986 through 2012.

The investigators searched electronic databases, Web sites, journals, and reference lists of previous reviews to identify studies that measured before-and-after effectiveness of HIV-focused mass media campaigns. They calculated effectiveness as the standardized mean difference (d) between pretest and posttest assessments of effectiveness. Identified campaigns had to target the general population since 1986 and be available by September 30, 2012.

The meta-analysis focused on 54 reports evaluating 72 interventions in 93 study samples including 142,196 people. Campaigns effectively promoted condom use (d+ 0.25, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.18 to 0.21), HIV transmission knowledge (d+ 0.30, 95% CI 0.18 to 0.41), and HIV prevention knowledge (d+ 0.39, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.52).

Condom use increased most in response to longer mass media campaigns and in countries with a lower human development index score. HIV transmission knowledge improved most with greater exposure to the media campaign, with more recent campaigns, and in countries with a lower human development index score.

The researchers believe their study is the first meta-analysis that examines published and unpublished reports of mass media campaigns across the world. They rate the effect sizes of these campaigns as small to medium in magnitude. Yet despite the small size of many campaigns analyzed, "for statewide or national media interventions the scope of their impact is quite large in absolute terms."

The authors believe their findings "provide strong testimony to the power that mass media campaigns can have for people living in nations most at need for HIV prevention and other health promotion interventions." Results "also suggest that such campaigns generally lack effectiveness in relatively developed countries, where the need for health promotion is generally lessened except in particular locales."

Source: Jessica M. LaCroix, Leslie B. Snyder, Tania B. Huedo-Medina, Blair T. Johnson. Effectiveness of mass media interventions for HIV prevention, 1986-2013: a meta-analysis. JAIDS. 2014; 66 (suppl 3): S329-S340

Written by Mark Mascolini on behalf of the International AIDS Society