Broadcast Health

RADIO deejays yesterday were told they were in a strategic position to help members of the public lead healthier lifestyles by broadcasting health information on the air and making use of their popularity to trigger a better response from the public.

Senior medical officer at the Health Promotion Centre Dr Hjh Norhayati Hj Md Kassim, during a health seminar for deejays and media presenters yesterday, said that radio broadcasting is one of the more effective ways to disseminate information to the public.

"If you listen to the radio, it's more interactive with the public because you have open phone lines, you can text or email the deejays," she said.

Dr Hjh Norhayati added that according to surveys, the public were knowledgeable in terms of issues in Brunei, but that the challenge was for them to use the information given to them and translate it into action.

She added that it was fine for deejays to give general health information on air, but that it "sometimes falls short of information" and not linked to local situations.

"We want it to be more focused. There are particular health issues related to diet, physical activities and stress that we wish they would link with a local flavour of the situation," she said.

"Even statistics can be linked to programmes or local services so that people know where to go to ask for help or services," she added.

The senior medical officer said that she had once heard a deejay over the radio talking about people who wanted to quit smoking. "I was hoping that (the deejay) would say something like 'for your information, we have smoking cessation clinics at the Health Promotion Centre where treatments are free, and for those of you who want to quit smoking, please call up' or something like that," she said.

Members of the public know that smoking is bad for them, but there may not be people who know about the services offered to help them move to the next stage of recovery, said Dr Hjh Norhayati.

"I can easily see the deejays telling people about the health guidelines on how many portions of vegetables they need to eat on their way to a big family dinner," she added.

"When someone, especially their favourite radio deejay, disseminates this, it might trigger a better response," she said, adding that deejays have "followers" and that there are different radio networks that cater to different age groups.

"People like deejays and I hope they can tailor whatever health messages they have through their programmes," said Dr Hjh Norhayati.

The Brunei Times