Title
Nuestras historias-designing a novel digital story intervention through participatory methods to improve maternal and child health in the Peruvian amazon
Date Issued
2018
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Publisher(s)
Public Library of Science
Abstract
Background In rural areas of the Loreto region within the Peruvian Amazon, maternal mortality rate is above the national average and the majority of women deliver at home without care from a trained health care provider. Methods To develop community-tailored videos that could be used for future interventions, we conducted Photovoice and digital storytelling workshops with community health workers (CHW) and mothers from 13 rural communities in the Parinari district. Through Photovoice we recognized local barriers to healthy pregnancies. Participants (n = 28) were trained in basic photography skills and ethics. They captured photos representing perceived pregnancy-related road-blocks and supports, and these photos identified central themes. Participants recorded personal stories and “storyboarded” to develop digital stories around these themes, and a Digital Story Curriculum called Nuestras Historias (Our Stories), was created. An acceptability survey of the digital stories was then conducted including 47 men (M) and 60 women (F). Results According to the PhotoVoice workshops, pregnancy-related problems included: lack of partner support, domestic violence, early pregnancies, difficulty attending prenatal appointments, and complications during pregnancy and delivery. Over 30 stories on these themes were recorded. Seven were selected based on clarity, thematic relevance, and narrative quality and were edited by a professional filmmaker. The acceptability survey showed that local participants found the digital stories novel (M = 89.4%, F = 83.3%), relatable (M = 89.4%, F = 93.2%), educational (M = 91.5%, F = 93.3%) and shareable (M = 100%, F = 100%). Over 90% of respondents rated the digital stories as “Excellent” or “Good”, found the videos “Useful” and considered them “Relevant” to their communities. Conclusions The digital stories address community-specific problems through narrative persuasion using local voices and photography. This combination had a high acceptability among the target population and can serve as a model for developing educational strategies in a community-tailored manner. This package of seven videos will be further evaluated through a cluster randomized trial. © 2018 Limaye et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Volume
13
Issue
11
Number
7
Language
English
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85056235872
PubMed ID
Source
PLoS ONE
ISSN of the container
1932-6203
Sponsor(s)
This project was supported by 1) The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Training Grant #R25 TW009345 funded by the Fogarty International Center (FIC), the NIH Office of the Direct Office of AIDS Research, the NIH Office of the Director Office of Research on Women’s Health, The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, 2) Kuskaya: An Interdisciplinary Training Program for Innovation in Global Health Award Number D43 TW009375-01A1 funded by the FIC of the NIH. These grants were received by NPL and ACRN. The project was also supported by 3) Grand Challenges Canada (GCC), and 4) The Peruvian Council of Science and Technology (CONCYTEC). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica