Empowering Village Health Volunteers with Content Innovation Media to Enhance Health Literacy and Media Awareness

Abstract

Village Health Volunteers (VHVs) play a crucial role in promoting health and preventing diseases at the primary health care. However, their effectiveness is often hindered by a lack of media literacy skills. This research aimed to develop a content innovation media model to enhance VHVs' health literacy and media awareness in the context of Thailand's Health Zone 2. The study involved 402 VHVs from five provinces. The findings revealed that VHVs had a moderate level of health literacy and lacked media literacy skills. VHVs' health media literacy increased moderately (average = 3.22). Media exposure affected VHVs' health literacy and health promotion understanding. Health literacy increased by 1.16 when: Self-health management increased by 0.241. Access to health information increased by 0.25. Awareness of health risks and lifestyle increased by 0.28. Health supplement use decreased by 0.17. The developed content innovation media model consisted of three phases: 1) knowledge and understanding of media influence,
2) understanding community health management issues and 3) content innovation media production. The study recommends expanding the network of health communicators, training VHVs in countering misinformation, regulating misleading advertisements, promoting community-based content innovation, and integrating lifestyle medicine principles into health promotion activities.