A major radio campaign promoting family planning in Northern Nigeria failed to produce lasting increases in contraception uptake despite reaching millions of listeners.
The study was led by Arnold Okpani, an alumnus of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), alongside collaborators examining the long-term impact of mass-media family planning interventions in Northern Nigeria.
Researchers examining the impact of the campaign in Kano State found that while the broadcasts appeared to trigger a short-term rise in new contraceptive users, the effect weakened over time and ultimately failed to change long-term trends in family planning service use.
The study analysed a large-scale educational campaign run by Family Empowerment Media (FEM) through Freedom Radio, one of the most widely listened-to stations in the region. The broadcasts, aired between 2021 and 2024, included advertisements, radio dramas, educational segments and live call-in programmes focused on contraception and family planning.
Using five years of routine health-system data from Nigeria’s District Health Information System (DHIS2), the researchers compared trends in Kano State, where the campaign aired, with neighbouring Jigawa State, where the broadcasts were not available.
The findings showed an initial increase in the number of new family planning acceptors after the intervention began. However, that increase was not sustained.
According to the paper, Kano experienced a relative monthly decline of 0.29 new family planning acceptors per 1,000 women over time following the campaign. Family planning counselling attendance also fell relative to the comparison state, declining by 0.27 clients per 1,000 women each month.
The analysis used a controlled interrupted time series design, a quasi-experimental approach commonly used in health policy research to assess whether interventions alter long-term trends.
The paper also drew on high-resolution population estimates from GRID3 mapping systems to strengthen estimates of contraceptive uptake.
The researchers concluded that although radio campaigns may improve awareness of contraception, awareness alone may not be enough to produce lasting behavioural change.
Nigeria continues to record low contraceptive use in several northern states despite widespread availability of family planning services. The paper notes that contraceptive uptake in Kano State remains significantly lower than in southern parts of the country.
The authors suggest that deeply rooted cultural and religious norms, social stigma, gender dynamics and barriers within the healthcare system may have limited the long-term impact of the broadcasts.
The study adds to growing evidence that mass-media health campaigns may be less effective when implemented without broader community and health-system support.
Researchers said the findings highlight the importance of evaluating public health campaigns using long-term service data rather than relying only on short-term surveys or self-reported attitudes.
The authors argue that while radio remains a powerful communication tool in low-resource settings, media campaigns alone are unlikely to overcome structural and social barriers surrounding family planning.