| Diffusion of innovations and social marketing theories are often applied to address public health problems in various developing countries. The two theories have come under criticism for not being adequately applied to unique population groups--an ostracized set of extremely alike individuals who become bonded together, i.e. commercial sex workers. This study investigated the effectiveness of diffusion of innovations and social marketing theories as they are utilized by community-based HIV/AIDS outreach programs in Bangkok, Thailand. The study examined how cultural characteristics of Thai culture influence the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS information dissemination efforts. A total of 55 HIV/AIDS outreach programs in Bangkok were surveyed. Few HIV/AIDS programs were found to target unique populations at high-risk for HIV/AIDS. The most unique HIV/AIDS outreach programs were identified (that is the programs who targeted HIV/AIDS). To analyze the use of the two theoretical concepts, both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were used, including content-analysis of interviews with program managers of ten most highly targeted HIV/AIDS outreach programs in Bangkok, and in-depth case studies with both program managers and clients about the effectiveness of their outreach programs. Few programs surveyed targeted unique populations. The study suggests that certain elements of diffusion of innovations and social marketing were used to lesser or greater extent by programs rated as more or less effective. Factors such as homophily, opinion leadership, innovation-decision process, resource management, audience-segmentation, communication channels, and program development emerge as particularly important. Several cultural constraints seem to influence information dissemination efforts, including traditional cultural roles (such as that between males and females), the widespread acceptability of commercial sex, the migratory nature of many unique populations, and the visibility of the disease.* ftn*Originally published in DAI vol. 56, no. 12. Reprinted here with corrected author name. |
