Abstract
The coronavirus pandemic may have harmful effects on use of family planning services. Lockdown regulations make it more difficult for people to visit health providers to obtain information about family planning, to discuss side-effects or problems they are experiencing with their current method, and go out to obtain new family planning supplies (e.g., to renew their contraceptive injection). The inability to earn income during the lockdown may also make family planning products and services unaffordable. As a result, efforts to curb the pandemic may cause unintended interruptions in contraceptive use and may prevent non-users from adopting a contraceptive method. Given these rapidly changing circumstances, it is important that family planning implementers make program adjustments without delay. When a timely programmatic response is of the essence, program implementers need simple behavior change models that can be used to inform programmatic decisions. This paper presents a case study of how DKT/Nigeria applied a behavior change model from persuasive design - the Fogg Behavior Model – to make timely adjustments to their contraceptive social marketing program during the course of the COVID-19 lockdown. Other public health programs, including programs that target health areas other than family planning, may be able to use similar approaches to guide the design of timely and responsive program adjustments.
Highlights
The rapid increase in the number of coronavirus infections and the corresponding increase in morbidity and mortality are well documented (WHO, 2020a)
Other restrictions on movement make it difficult for people to visit health providers to obtain information about family planning, to discuss side-effects or problems they are experiencing with their current method, or even to obtain new family planning supplies
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the governments of most countries, including Nigeria, to implement strict policies to curtail the spread of the virus
Summary
Any reports and responses or comments on the article can be found at the end of the article. Keywords Social Marketing, Theory of Change, Fogg Behavior Change Model, COVID-19, Family Planning, Nigeria. This article is included in the Coronavirus (COVID-19) collection. Disclaimer The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not of their respective organizations or funding bodies. Publication in Gates Open Research does not imply endorsement by the Gates Foundation
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