Findings of public health research should reach common people: Speakers

The findings of public health research should be made available to the general people, said Dr Rumana Huque, Executive Director of ARK Foundation.

"Research-based knowledge is a crucial component in policy design and decision making. It enables us to think of practical actions and increases awareness among general people who can force decision-makers to implement the appropriate policies," said Dr Rumana Haque, also Professor for Economics Department at Dhaka University at a workshop on Tuesday.

ARK Foundation, a public health research institution, organised the workshop titled "Role of Mass Media in Dissemination of Public Health Research Findings' ' with the participation of health journalists of Bangladesh at its office in Gulshan- 2. 

Fariha Islam Munia, the Research and Communication Officer of ARK Foundation presented the keynote speech at the workshop. 

She said that along with rapid urbanisation in the country, the prevalence of non-communicable diseases is also rising. The number of urban poor people is also spiking. While the rural areas have different institutions like community clinics, upazila health complexes to deliver health care, the urban areas do not have such well-organised healthcare systems to deliver health care to poor, marginalised populations. So, urban health issues should be given more priority.

The participants of the workshop stated, the media can play a key role in disseminating health related research results to common people in simple, plain, intelligible language. They highlighted the fact that the media played an important role in creating mass awareness regarding Covid-19, vaccination programme, immunisation programmes, TB control, family planning etc.