Assessment of Urban Dwellers on the Use of Selected Social Media Platforms in Propagating the Knowledge of Parkinson's Disease in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examined the assessment of urban dwellers on the use of selected social media platforms in propagating the knowledge of Parkinson's disease in Ebonyi state, Nigeria. Three research objectives, three research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design and used a questionnaire structured by the researcher for data collection. A sample of 384 respondents was selected from the population of 851,186 in Ebonyi using a purposive sampling technique. The instrument for the data collection was face and content validated by three experts from the Department of Mass Communication who vetted it in terms of the coverage and adequacy of the contents of the questions. The reliability of the instrument was determined by subjecting it to a test of reliability in a trial testing using 20 respondents from Benue State, which was not part of the study area. The data collected were used to determine the reliability coefficient using the Cronbach alpha approach in the statistical package for social science (SPSS). The analysis gave the coefficient index of 0.81. The instrument was administered to the respondents with the help of three (3) research assistants who were graduates from the Department of Mass Communication and considered to have good knowledge of the area of study as well as requisite skills and ideas needed for the administration of the questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed using percentages, mean and standard deviation. Percentage was used to present the demographic data while research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation, and the hypotheses were tested using regression at a 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that urban dwellers use the selected social media to propagate knowledge of events to a high extent; the selected social media platforms were used to propagate the knowledge of Parkinson's disease among urban dwellers to a low extent, and the aspects of knowledge of Parkinson's disease that the selected social media platforms were used to propagate among urban dwellers in Ebonyi state, Nigeria are meaning of Parkinson's disease, causes of Parkinson's disease and symptoms of Parkinson's disease. The study recommended, among other things, that the health sector, active smartphone users, government, non-governmental organizations, and other concerned groups should use different mechanisms to sensitize the public on the importance or benefits of using social media platforms for propagating knowledge of Parkinson's diseases.