Latest News

23 Sep 2011

TB Public Service Advertisements Pretested by Westat

Westat India Social Sciences was recently awarded a research contract by BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) for pretesting two public service advertisement (PSA) concepts about tuberculosis (TB).

The PSAs aim to encourage individuals who are coughing for more than 2 weeks to get their sputum tested for TB at Designated Microscopic Centres (DMC) of the Government of India. BBC WST plans to produce and broadcast the advertisements on television and produce a long format radio programme to support the TV campaign.

The BBC WST is BBC's international charity that uses the creative power of media to reduce poverty and promote human rights by inspiring people to build better
lives (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/). The TB advertisements are being produced for Population Services International (PSI) under the Global Fund's Round-9 Programme on Tuberculosis Control. BBC WST is working as a consortium partner with PSI for developing and implementing the communication strategy for this programme.

Research Objectives

The main objectives of the research were to identify the PSA concept that best communicates the message clearly and effectively to audiences and to determine the efficacy of the long format radio concept in persuading vulnerable audiences to get tested for TB. Audience feedback was sought on the following metrics to evaluate the two PSA concepts:

Similarly, audience feedback was gathered on their willingness to listen to the long format radio programme and their suggestions related to the programme content, the preferred time and day of broadcast, preferred length of each episode, and suggestions for improvement.

Focus Groups

Westat India conducted 24 focus group discussions across the six programme states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. The target respondents were men and women 18 to 50 years old living in both urban and rural areas. All the respondents were active TV viewers and some were also radio listeners.

The respondents also included some who are vulnerable to TB infection: current and ex-smokers, those using traditional fire-stoves for cooking, those living in close and congested spaces, mobile and migrant workers, and those with a family history of persistent cough.

The respondents were recruited for the group discussions through personal interviews using a screener questionnaire. The selected respondents were invited for group discussions at a central venue close to where they live or work.

Male moderators conducted the male focus groups and female moderators conducted the female focus groups. The moderators were trained and oriented for using the discussion guide, which was developed in consultation with BBC WST to facilitate the discussions.

Specially developed animatics (animated storyboards) of the two PSAs were used as research stimuli to facilitate the discussions. Respondents were shown one PSA at a time, followed by detailed discussions around their responses on the key performance metrics. The order of exposure to the PSAs was rotated in each group to eliminate any order bias.

After detailed discussion on each PSA the respondents were asked to vote for their preferred PSA and explain their reasons for preferring it over the other one. Toward the end of the discussions, an audio of the radio programme was played, and the respondents were asked to provide feedback on the programme and their suggestions on the content and broadcast timings.

Research Findings

The Westat India research team plans to analyze the research findings using the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) as the conceptual framework of analysis. The team has also tried to measure the cognitive responses of the participants for gauging their levels of involvement with the two PSAs. Topline results of the research have been presented to BBC WST, PSI, and the Government of India teams, and the findings are being analyzed for preparing the final report due on October 15.

For more information: