Love Patrol is a television soap opera produced by Wan Smolbag Theatre in an effort to raise the profile of understanding of HIV and other issues in the Pacific. The medium of television/DVD was selected for this edutainment project because it has a wider reach than many other mediums, particularly given the geographically isolated nature of Pacific Island countries and the low levels of literacy.

The research detailed here was carried out in 3 of the islands where the series has been broadcast: Vanuatu, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands. It concerns the first series of Love Patrol, which included 10 episodes.

This research applied a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to gauge people's overall perception of the series and key themes highlighted in the series. People's knowledge, attitudes, and practices were assessed through street surveys, focus groups sessions, workshops, anecdotes, and community documentation. The research also explored reaction to a workshop held to introduce the Love Patrol DVD and resource guide to practitioners in schools, universities, community groups, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), government departments, hospitals, and health clinics.

Specifically, quantitative data were derived from street surveys conducted in both Vanuatu and Fiji. The surveys were comprised of 10 structured and open-ended questions. During face-to-face interviews, an interviewer read the questions and then recorded the answers; this was part of an effort to increase inclusivity, particularly for participants who may have low literacy levels. Additional surveys were also conducted with focus groups in Vanuatu to gauge participants' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. A baseline survey was first conducted prior to participants' watching Love Patrol; upon having viewed the 10-part series, the participants then completed the survey for the second time. While the survey sample for the focus groups surveys was significantly smaller than the street surveys and is by no means statistically significant in size, researchers indicate that the focus groups interviewed were indicative of the intended audience.

The qualitative component comprised focus group discussions (FGDs) and workshops on Love Patrol and the accompanying resource guide. FGDs were conducted with students from the police college (PC) and teachers college (TC) in March 2008. Each FGD was centred on questions relating to HIV and AIDS but also provided room for the discussion of other topics depending on the ideas of each group. Also critical to the qualitative component of research were the workshops which were conducted in Vanuatu, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands. A resource guide for series one was produced and was then pretested with teachers, students, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and community groups in Vanuatu, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands. Workshops were run in rural as well as urban settings and participants were taken through the draft booklet and asked to make comments so the booklet could be changed to make it more usable for the participants. This process was designed to ensure that the guide was responsive to participants' needs and to contribute to the user-friendly quality of the guide. The activities undertaken in the workshops consisted of many small group discussions, short reading passages from the film, and debates which drew on the themes highlighted throughout the series. The feedback and anecdotes that resulted from the workshops has provided Wan Smolbag with a deeper understanding of teachers, students, NGOs, and community groups' needs and the barriers they face, particularly with regard to reproductive health education.

The surveys conducted in Vanuatu and Fiji illustrate that the reach of Love Patrol was excellent and was notably high amongst youth and young women in particular, which are both identified as vulnerable groups to HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and are thus key intended audiences for Love Patrol. In Vanuatu, 88% of the 814 people surveyed watched Love Patrol, over three-quarters of them watching almost the whole series. In Fiji, a viewer survey found that up to 15% of the population watched the whole series, with 100,000 viewers every week.

In a letter to Wan Smolbag, the manager of a television station wrote, "Here in Fiji, the show [Love Patrol] has rated 9th in the list of local/regional shows that we air. After our latest survey period over 6 weeks in October and November, Love Patrol's average audience figure is between 17.5-17.9 percent of total audience; in numbers, that translates to a reach of roughly 25,000 households in Fiji. There are now over 125,000 people watching the show every week since it started. I can't emphasize enough how huge those numbers are for a series debut for any program."

One of the key aspects of the show that participants identified with was its realistic quality; in this way, viewers were able to identify with the characters and the messages communicated. Another key element identified by participants in the survey was that Love Patrol served as an effective vehicle in promoting dialogue and communication, with one participant commenting: "It raises issues that are hard for people to talk about, but when it comes out on TV, no one blames anyone for raising those issues and it becomes a way to begin talking about important issues."

• Just over 1 in 5 of the participants in the Vanuatu workshops (from PCs and TCs) were able to identify the difference between HIV and AIDS prior to viewing the series. Once having viewed it, the proportion of participants who answered the question correctly increased to almost one-third (31.3%). 
• Despite the series highlighting the fact that, with the support of treatment, people with HIV can live healthy and productive lives, there was a notable increase in the proportion of participants (4.5%: PC; 16.0%: TC) conveying that they agreed with the statement: "When you are diagnosed with HIV, you will die from AIDS very soon." These results signal the need to reinforce, through future Love Patrol series, that this statement is false.
• There was a significant increase in the proportion of police college (PC) participants (18.2%) and teacher college (TC) participants (52.0%) who agreed with the statement: "When a pregnant mother has HIV, she can take medication to prevent passing HIV to her unborn child."
• There was a total 4.5% (PC) and 8.0% (TC) increase in the proportion of participants that agreed with the statement: "Many people contract HIV through blood transfusions in the hospital."
• There was a notable increase in the proportion of PC participants (9.1%) and a slight increase in the proportion of TC participants (1.0%) that recorded agreement to: "You can contract HIV the first time you have sexual intercourse." 
• There was a notable increase in the proportion of TC participants (16.0%) that recorded disagreement with this phrase: "You can catch AIDS if you take care of someone who had the disease."

• Amongst Vanuatu workshop participants, there was the notable increase (11.3%) in participants indicating that a person with HIV looks normal and/or healthy.
• There was a decline in participants who recorded that people with HIV look "worried/hopeless/helpless/tired/depressed" (7.0%).
• There was a slight increase in the proportion of PC participants (4.5%) and notable decrease in the proportion of TC participants (12.0%) that agreed with the statement: "Prostitutes are more likely to have HIV."
• Once the participants had viewed Love Patrol there was a notable increase in the proportion of participants who conveyed that they would treat HIV-positive family members "equally" (12.5% increase) and "care for them/give them support" (12.5% increase).
• There was a notable decline from 6.3% of participants conveying that they would isolate their family members (prior to watching Love Patrol) to no participants (after viewing Love Patrol) recording this as an action they would take.
• While there was an increase in the proportion of participants conveying that they "would stay away from them [HIV-positive family members]", there was a decline in all of the following potential actions to 0.0%: "be wary of contact with blood," "watch out for my welfare," and "treat them like a sick person."
• There was an increase (of 8.3%) in the proportion of participants who indicated they would "seek medical advice from a health professional and/or medical treatment" if diagnosed with HIV. There was also an increase (of 4.2%) in the proportion of participants conveying that they would "avoid spreading the virus". In addition, there were slight increases in the proportion of participants who indicated that they would "provide education/awareness" and "care for self".
• There was a significant increase of 32.0% in the proportion of TC participants agreeing with the statement: "Rape can happen inside of a marriage."
• There was a significant increase among TC participants (32%) expressing disagreement with the statement: "It is okay for police to use physical punishment on people they have arrested." The results for the PC participants remained the same, at 95.5% disagreeing with this statement.
• There was a much more significant increase in the proportion of PC participants conveying disagreement with "Only parents should teach their children about reproductive health" (22.7%) when compared to the increase in the proportion of TC participants expressing disagreement (4.0%). This resulted in a total proportion of 86.4% of PC participants disagreeing with the statement as compared to 60.0% of TC participants.
• While there was not a significant change in results, close to all of the participants expressed agreement to the statements: "Even though some people are aware of HIV they still do not use condoms" and "There are many people who have HIV in Vanuatu and the South Pacific, but they do not know they have it because they have never been tested."

Prior to watching the series, exactly half of the participants in the Vanuatu workshops indicated that they had not been tested for HIV. Interestingly, after participants had viewed the Love Patrol series there was a 4.2% increase in the proportion of participants that indicated they had not been tested for HIV. "While this is not a significant difference it is an indication that after having watched the series participants may have had a better understanding of what an HIV test was or may have felt more inclined or comfortable to reveal that they 'had not had an HIV test'."

In addition to the positive changes identified through the research, there were also data that helped identify topics which need to be emphasised in future Love Patrol series. The following highlight some of these areas:

• Despite the series highlighting the fact that, with the support of treatment, people with HIV can live healthy and productive lives, there was a notable increase in the proportion of participants (4.5%: PC; 16.0%: TC) conveying that they agreed with the statement: "When you are diagnosed with HIV, you will die from AIDS very soon."
• While approximately 80% of participants (81.8%: PC; 80.0%: TC) disagreed with the statement "If someone has HIV they should be sacked from their job", there was a notable increase in PC students (9.0%) and a slight increase in TC students (4.0%) that agreed with this statement.
• There was a total 4.5% (PC) and 8.0% (TC) increase in the proportion of participants that agreed with the statement: "Many people contract HIV through blood transfusions in the hospital." While this statement may be true in rural areas where blood was not tested until recently, it is important to clarify that blood is tested at the main hospitals, and that contracting HIV through blood transfusions would be unlikely.
• There was a slight increase in the proportion of PC participants (4.5%) and notable decrease in the proportion of TC participants (12.0%) that agreed with the statement: "Prostitutes are more likely to have HIV." Although it may be true that prostitutes have a greater risk at contracting HIV because they have more partners, it is important to make the message clear that having protected sex is key to preventing the disease. Each unprotected sexual encounter involves the same amount of risk whether you are or are not a sex worker.

Email from Peter Walker to The Communication Initiative on March 7 2009; and Love Patrol Series 1: Evaluation Report [PDF]; and email from Jennifer M. Harris to The Communication Initiative on November 8 2009.