Stress and its fatal consequences on health negatively affect the job
performance and productivity of academic staff in our educational
institutions. Against this backdrop, this research was carried out to
assess the communication of stress management for healthy living and
higher productivity among the academic staff of Ahmadu Bello University,
Zaria. The theory of Health Belief Model, the Diffusion of innovation
theory and Victor Vroom's Motivation theory were used as the theoretical
framework for this research. Triangulation method using the
quantitative and qualitative instruments were employed on a study
population of Six Hundred and Nineteen (619) reduced to a sample size of
Two Hundred and Thirty-eight (238) based on Raosoft (2016) sample size
calculation. Findings from the quantitative data analysis show that,
63.1% of the respondents were not comfortable and feel overwhelmed with
their work schedules, which constitute a stressor to them; 87.1% of the
respondents were not informed by the University Management about stress
management and its strategies. On the effectiveness of communication
channels adopted by the University Management in conveying health
awareness messages and campaigns to academic staff, especially on stress
management, 96% of the respondents indicate they are ineffective, thus
the University need to for re-strategize and adopt more effective media
strategies. Results from Qualitative data corroborated the Quantitative
findings stated above. In line with that, the research concludes that,
effective communication is key to preventing health risks and its
resultant consequences. Hence, the choice of channels of communication
also goes a long way in ensuring that the messages are not only received
but fully comprehended and utilized accordingly. Therefore, the study
recommended that there is the need to increase the frequency and
regularity of available communication channels and also adopt other
modern channels like the use of Bulk Short Messaging Services (SMS),
emails and the social media to communicate stress related health
messages to the staff in order to reduce its consequences on staff
overall health and enhance their job performance and academic
productivity in the University.