Salud de la Mujer: Using Fotonovelas to Increase Health Literacy Among Latinas

Background: There is an identified need for health literacy strategies to be culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate.

Objectives: The goal of our community-based participatory research (CBPR) project related to health and nutrition is to demonstrate that active community involvement in the creation of health education fotonovelas that are relevant to culture, ethnicity, gender, social class, and language can increase the health literacy of women in a disadvantaged community.

Methods: We recruited 12 women to take part in our pilot fotonovela intervention about healthy eating and nutrition. Pre- and post-test assessments of knowledge, attitudes, and behavior around nutrition were given at baseline and will be collected after the completion of the project.

Results: We hypothesize that post-test assessments of our participants will reveal increased nutrition knowledge as well as positive changes in attitudes and behavior toward healthy eating.

Conclusions: We believe that our fotonovelas will represent experiences of community members and encourage good health practices by increasing knowledge and cooperation among community members.