AIDSQuest: The HIV/AIDS Survey Library
Survey Summaries

Johns Hopkins University/Center for Communication Programs—Congregation Study in Ghana

Overview
This survey was designed as part of a study to evaluate the impact of Stop AIDS Love Life, an integrated mass media and community-based communication intervention aimed at slowing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ghana. The study was implemented by Johns Hopkins University/Center for Communication Programs (JHUCCP). The first phase of the campaign, launched in February 2000, was designed to increase awareness of HIV-protective behaviors and individuals’ perceptions of their risk of HIV infection. Following the initial phase, the campaign shifted its focus toward community-based activities designed to address the contextual factors that continue to impede HIV prevention efforts, including HIV-related stigma. A major element of this campaign involved the training of Christian and Muslim religious leaders. This training was designed to facilitate an effective response to HIV/AIDS within local congregations by increasing religious leaders’ knowledge of HIV/AIDS, skills for counseling people affected by HIV/AIDS, and motivation for addressing HIV/AIDS issues in their community. This survey examines religious congregations’ response to the HIV epidemic in their community. This study is informed by the Communication Framework for Social Change (CFSC). The CFSC describes the role of communication activities, such as the religious leader training described above, as catalysts in the social change process through two primary mechanisms, community dialogue and collective action.

This instrument contains questions assessing:

• Behaviors related to HIV prevention, care, and support.

• Psychosocial factors believed to influence these behaviors.

• Perceptions of the community-level characteristics specified in the Communication Framework for Social Change that are hypothesized to influence a community’s response to HIV/AIDS.

• Exposure to mass media and community-based messages related to HIV/AIDS, including those conveyed by the JHUCCP campaigns.

• The social networks among the members of the congregations.

Methodology/validity
The study was conducted within six religious congregations in the Ashanti Region. The English survey is available in AIDSQuest. The questionnaire will require approximately 35-40 minutes to complete. The survey was developed by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Communication Programs (JHUCCP). For more information, visit their Web site at http://www.hcpartnership.org/Partners/jhuccp.php, or contact the director, Dr. Jane Bertrand (jbertran@jhuccp.org).

Print this page

@ E-mail this page

This page updated 21 August 2006

---