information, education and communication plays a

pivotal role in creating awareness, mobilizing people

and making development participatory through
advocacy and by transferring knowledge , skills and
techniques to the people. The IEC activities are to be
undertaken through the available modes of
communication in order to inform the people with
messages. Information , education and
communication (IEC)plays two most important roles –
informative and persuasive and as such crucial for
bringing about requisite social mobilization and
facilitating participatory development.
 Definition and concepts
 Information: Defined as to describe it as one or more
statement or fact that is received by a human which
have some form of worth to him. Information affects
the perspective of the recipient person. The facts and
figures that are received by human have to be true and
factual to be labeled as information. Lays, fare hood
counterfactual information is not information itself
but is called misinformation.
 education
 Education: it is process by which behavioral changes
takes place in an individual as a result of experience
which he has undergone. Education in a learning
process or a series of learning experience through
which as individual inform and orients himself to
develop skills and intelligent action.
 Communication
 Communication is the process of attempting to change
the behavior of other. The communication job is
chiefly helping people learn to look at things in a new
way by sharing idea and information. When people
exchange idea and information they can work together
better, sharing entail parting with information that
gives. Power communication is a general term for the
flow of information linking people or place. It is
therefore the process of exchanging news forts opinion
and massages individual.
 The essentials of IEC
 Information, education and communication (IEC)
combines strategies, approaches and methods that
enable individuals, families, groups, organizations and
communities to play active roles in achieving,
protecting and sustaining their own health.IEC is the
process of learning that empowers people to make
decisions, modify behaviors and change social
conditions
 IEC training scheme
 The information education and communication
training scheme was launched by the ministry of
health and family welfare, with financial assistance
from USAID on 17th November 1987 in four Hindi
speaking states of UP, MP, Rajasthan and Bihar in
phased manner. Thus the ministry of health and
family welfare abroad the scheme to continue as a plan
scheme under the 8th plan and made budgetary
provision as part of the IEC division of the ministry
 Objectives of IEC:

1 Increase
5
the reach of 2 Improve 6 combine 7 Improve
3 Make concentrate
services by the quality of interpersona performance
supervision 4 link on local field
making visit services l level
more supervision problems
of worker through communicati through
oriented with at both for
and knowledge on strategy continuous
towards various developmen
supervisor and skill with mass with village
problem levels t of training
more development media community
solving material and
predictable of worker. approach. volunteers
their users.
and regular.
 Aims of IEC
To create awareness
and disseminating
To formulate
information on the
appropriate IEC
programmes of the
strategy in tune
ministry primarily
with the
to the target groups
communication
in rural areas , to
needs of the various
the opinion makers
programmes.
and also to the
public at large.
 Major component of IEC:

Monitoring and
Training evaluation

Visit Supervision
schedules
 Health education
 Definition:
 (According to WHO)
 “Health education is any combination of learning
experiences designed to help individuals and
communities improve their health, by increasing their
knowledge or influencing their attitudes.”
 Aim
 To improves the health status of
individuals, families, communities,
states, and the nation through
enhancing the quality of life for all
people and reducing the cost spend
on treatment.
Objectives of health education

Motivating Informing
people people:
 Importance of health education
 It improves the health status of people.
 It enhances the quality of life for all peoples.
 It reduces morbidity and mortality rate.
 It empowers the people with knowledge and skill.
 It guides the people regarding proper use of health services.
 It stimulate the individuals to achieve health through their
participation in health development programmes.
 It brings positive attitude among people towards health.
 It helps people to take rationale decision to solve their own
problems.
The Role of the Health Educator
Interpersonal health behavior
theories

Social
support
theories
 Components of communication

 Source (sender)
 • Originator of message
 • Can be from an individual or groups, an institution or organization.
 • People are exposed to communication from different source but most
likely to accept a communication from a person or organization that
they trust i.e. has high source credibility.
 • Depending on the community, trust and source credibility may come
from:
 Personal qualities or actions e.g. a health worker who always comes out
to help people at night.
 Qualification and training
 A person’s natural position in the family or community, e.g. village
chief or elder.
 The extent to which the source shares characteristics such as culture,
education, experiences
 Abstract
 India is a significant contributor to the world’s total burden of
deafness. Out of all causes, almost 50% of the causes of
decreased hearing are preventable. With the launch of the
National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness,
the need for an effective information, education and
communication (IEC) campaign was felt. There is negligible
information available about the status of awareness levels of the
community about the various aspects of hearing loss. We carried
out this research with the objective of getting to know the
existing awareness related to hearing loss in the community to
generate an evidence base for formulating various messages to be
incorporated in IEC materials for dissemination in the
community. We also asked the participants about their
suggestions for the various information resources so that an IEC
campaign could be designed accordingly.
Generating an Evidence Base
for Information, Education and
Communication Needs of the
Community Regarding
Deafness: A Qualitative Study
Characteristics of effective
communication

• All • The
barriers proper
have media
been has been
removed. chosen.
• Two – way • A good
communicat presentat
ion has ion has
been been
established.
made.
 How to overcome barriers of
communication
 • The sender must know his/her audience’s:
 • Background
 • Age and sex
 • Social status
 • Education
 • Job/work
 • Interests/problems/needs
 • Language
 • The messages must be:
 • Timely
 • Meaningful/relevant
 • Applicable to the situation
 Barriers to Effective
Communication
• Competition for
attention (noise)

• Language
• Attitudes and
difference and
Beliefs
vocabulary use

• Age difference
Methods of Communication
Intra -
Personal
communica
tion

Inter -
Mass
Personal
communica
communica
tion
tion
 Mass communication

 It is a means of transmitting messages to a large

audience that usually reaches a large segment of the
population. It uses mass media. Mass media includes
broadcast media (radio and television) as well as print
media (newspapers, books, leaflets and posters)

 Intra-Personal communication

 It takes place inside a person. It includes the beliefs,

feelings, thoughts and justification we make for our
actions. E.g. a person may look at an object and
develop a certain understanding. However, this could
be affected by a number of factors including previous
experience, language, culture, personal needs, etc.
Interpersonal Communication
 It means interaction between two or more people who
are together at the same time and place. E.g. between
health extension worker and community member, a
teacher and students in a class. The decisive criterion
for personal communication is that communication
happens at the same time and place.
Cont.
 Effect and feedback
 • Effect is the change in receiver’s knowledge, attitude
and practice or behavior.
 • Feedback is the mechanism of assessing what has
happened on the receiver after communication has
occurred.
Cont.
 Receiver (Audience)
 • The person or a group for whom the communication is intended
 • The first step in planning any communication is to consider the
intended audience.
 Before communication, the following characteristics of audiences
should be analyzed.
 • Educational factors: can they read? What type of appeals might
convince them?
 • Sociocultural factors: What do they already believe and feel about the
topic of communication?
 • Patterns of communication: how people show respect when talking to
another person? What time of the day and which programs do they
listen? Which places do they pass that might be good places to put up
posters?
Cont.
 Channel
 A Channel is a physical means by which message
travels from a source to a receiver. The commonest
types of channels are verbal,visual, printed materials
or combined audio visual and printed materials. Your
choice of channel will depend on what you are trying
to achieve, the nature of your audience and what
resources are at your disposal.

Cont.
 Message
 It consists of what is actually communicated including
the actual appeals, words, and pictures and sounds
that you use to get the ideas across. A message will
only be effective if the advice presented is relevant,
appropriate, and acceptable and put across in an
understandable way.
Cont.
 Receiver. A person from a similar background to the community is
more likely to share the same language, ideas and motivations and thus
be a more effective communicator. One of the main reasons for
communication failure is when the source comes from a different
background from the receiver and uses inappropriate message content
and appeals. This principle–that people who share similar backgrounds
communicate better with each other–has important implications for
health education. It explains why health
 workers who are strangers to the local community are not always
effective in their health education work. Because of this, the health
extension package program
 emphasizes recruitment of health extension workers from the local
community. This is particularly relevant in our country where there is a
huge diversified culture.
 Two-way communication
 As the message is more complex, two-way
communication becomes essential. In this type of
communication, information flows from the source to
the receiver and back from the receiver to the source.
The addition of feedback allows the sender to find out
how the message is being received and so it can be
monitored and adapted to better suit
the receiver’s needs.
 Types of Communication

 One-way communication

 This is a linear type of communication in which
information flows from the source to the receiver. There is
no input (feed back) from the receiver. It is commonly used
in advertising; the message is designed to persuade the
receiver to take action prescribed by the sender. The model
is best used by organizations when the message is simple
and needs to be communicated quickly, for example, the
date and time of a public meeting. There is no opportunity
to clear up misunderstanding and meaning is controlled by
the receiver
 Communication
 Communication is the process of sharing of ideas,
information, knowledge, and experience among
people to take action. Communication may take place
between one person and another, between an
individual and a group or between two groups.
Communication facilitates creation of awareness,
acceptance and action at individual, group and inter-
group level. The process always involves a sender and a
receiver regardless of the number of people concerned.


Community level models
3.
Social
action
2.
Social
plannin
g
1.locality
developm
ent
Intrapersonal health behavior
models
Health
belief
model
Social
learning
theory
Health education models and
theories

Intrapersonal Interpersonal Community

Cont .
 The health educator should use terms that can be
immediately understood. Highly scientific jargon
should be avoided.
 Health Education should start from the existing
indigenous knowledge and efforts should aim at small
changes in a graded fashion and not be too ambitious.
People will learn step by step and not everything
together. For every change of behavior, a personal trail
is required and therefore the health education should
provide opportunities for trying out changed practices.

Cont .
 It must be remembered that people are not absolutely
without any information or ideas. The health educators are
not merely passing information but also give an
opportunity for the clients to analyze fresh ideas with old
ideas, compare with past experience and take decisions
that are found favorable and beneficial.
 The grave danger with health education programs is the
pumping of all bulk of information in one exposure or
enthusiasm to give all possible information. Since it is
essentially a learning process, the process of education
should be done step-by-step and with due attention to the
different principles of communication.
Cont .
 The health educators have to make themselves
acceptable. They should realize that they are enablers
and not teachers. They have to win the confidence of
clients.
 The health educators should not only have correct
information with them on all matters that they have to
discuss but also should themselves practice what they
profess. Otherwise, they will not enjoy credibility
Cont.
 Health Education should provide an opportunity for the
clients to go through the stages of identification of
problems, planning, implementation and evaluation. This
is of special importance in the health education of the
community where the identification of problems and
planning, implementing and evaluating are to be done with
full involvement of the community to make it the
community’s own program.
 health Education is based on scientific findings and
current knowledge. Therefore a health educator should
have recent scientific knowledge to provide health
education.
Cont.
 It is necessary to have a free flow of communication.
The two way communication is particularly of
importance in health education to help in getting
proper feedback and get doubt cleared.
 The health educator has to adjust his talk and action to
suit the group for whom he has to give health
education. E.g. when the health educator has to deal
with illiterates and poor people, he has to get down to
their level of conversation and human relationships so
as to reduce any social distance
Principles of health education

 All health education should be need based. Therefore

before involving any individual, group or the
community in health education with a particular
purpose or for a program the need should be
ascertained. It has to be also specific and relevant to
the problems and available solutions.
 Health education aims at change of behavior.
Therefore multidisciplinary approach is necessary for
understanding of human behavior as well as for
effective teaching process.
 Steps in developing IEC
 Conduct a needs assessment: set the goal. This is a broad
statement of what you would like to see accomplished with the
target audience in the end.
 Establish behavioral objectives that will contribute to achieve the
goal: develop the IEC activities and involve as many others
partners as possible.
 Identify potential barriers and ways of overcoming them.
 Establish an evaluation plan. The indicators should determine
the level of achievement of the behavioral objectives. Having
such specific indicators makes evaluating and monitoring the
progress and impact of the activities much easier. Additionally,
process indicators could be established to track to what extent
and how well the planned activities have been carried out.