Mothers-in-law as Key Influencers: Study on a Radio Drama Intervention to improve Maternal and Child Health in Pakistan

Mothers-in-law play an integral role in promoting maternal and child health practices in rural Pakistan. This study discusses the design, implementation, and evaluation of a 25- episode radio drama featuring the mother-in-law as the primary influencer for maternal and child health practices. The radio drama was designed after an extensive pre-drama audience research comprising of 10 focus groups, and 14 in-depth interviews in Bagh and Mansehra. Post-drama evaluation comprised two focus groups in the target areas. The endline evaluation found that viewership of the drama improved communication between people of all age groups and social roles without offending their dignity, intelligence, and sense of tradition. Additionally, the findings showed that the audience demonstrated improvement in knowledge about danger signs for mother and child, as well as positive attitudes to seeking timely service from a trained healthcare provider. The study makes a contribution to existing health communication campaigns by introducing a culture-centric approach, through radio dramas, to influence mothers-inlaw and consequently impact maternal and child health practices.

Bio-Psychosocial Correlates of Healthy Experience of Aging Among Pakistani Older Adults

Owing to the rapid advancements in medical treatment and easy availability of health care services, people on average live longer than before. As a result the percentage of aging population has increased all over the world prompting developmental psychologists and health care professionals to study and explore the physical and psychosocial well-being and overall mental health of the older age cohorts. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to identify and explore the correlates and predictors of healthy experience of aging among older adults in indigenous context. The research was divided into two studies. In study I, a scale was developed to measure the healthy experience of aging among older adults. The factorial validity of the scale was determined on a sample of 400 older adults (men=220, women=180) with age range of 60 years and above,belonging from four urban areas of Punjab (i.e. Lahore, Islamabad, Khanewal and Mandi Bahaudin). Principal component analysis using varimax rotation resulted in Physical health, Psychological health, and Social engagement and Ego Integrity factor solution. Reliability analysis revealed that the scale had high internal consistency with cronbach‘s alpha of .84. The construct validity of the scale was also determined by calculating convergent and discriminant validity on a sample of 100 older adults. In study 2 , correlates and predictors of healthy experience of aging were measured by using HEAT scale , Ego Integrity scale ( Boylin, 1976 ),Perceived Well-being Scale ( Reker& Wong ,1995),Perceived Social Support scale ( Zimet& Farley ,1988 ) ,and The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale ( Underwood , 2006). Results of correlation analysis revealed that healthy experience of aging has significant correlation with social support, wellbeing, and spirituality. Moreover; regression analysis also showed social support, ego integrity and spirituality to be significant predictors of healthy experience of aging. This research has significant implications for the adaptation of healthy hobbies for older adults to minimize the risk of health deterioration and will also contribute to the existing indigenous literature in the area of developmental psychology.