This article was originally published here
Health Promotion Pract. 2021, May 14: 15248399211007818. doi: 10.1177 / 15248399211007818. Online before printing.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Efforts to tackle the type 2 diabetes (T2D) epidemic have been hampered by the lack of effective communication on political fronts. It is not known whether art can be used to transform the T2D discourse from an individual, biomedical problem to a multilevel, communal and social problem.
METHOD: We investigated whether spoken word workshops enable young color artists to instill a critical awareness of T2D. The Bigger Picture encourages the creation and dissemination of art to move from the narrow biomedical model to a comprehensive socio-ecological model (SEM). Workshops provide (1) public health content, (2) writing exercises, and (3) draft feedback. Based on the participatory pedagogy of Freire and Boal, workshops encourage young people to use their lived experiences in the creation of poetry. We analyzed literature changes and public health activation among participants and mapped poems to the SEM to assess whether their poems convey the multi-level perspective critical to public health literacy.
RESULTS: Participants reported a significant increase in the personal relevance of T2D prevention, T2D peer-to-peer discussions, concerns about targeting businesses, and an interest in organizing communities to tackle the epidemic. In all stanzas almost all poems (95%) contained> three out of five SEM levels (systemic forces, areas of influence, social norms, behavioral attitudes, individual factors); Three quarters (78%) had> four levels.
CONCLUSIONS: Involving youthful color poets in the development of artistic content to combat T2D can enhance their literary and social activation in the public health arena, and foster compelling art that communicates how complex, multi-tiered forces interact to create disease and disease differences.
PMID: 33989074 | DOI: 10.1177 / 15248399211007818
