Leveraging Stories to Promote Health and Prevent Cancer

Abstract

Many challenges are associated with communicating health messages to promote healthy behaviors and prevent cancer including limited health literacy levels, varied life experiences, and different learning styles. In this issue of Cancer Prevention Research, Chen and colleagues codeveloped personal, audiovisual digital stories using community-engaged, Digital Storytelling. Their goal was to improve the attitudes of and vaccination intention for human papillomavirus among Vietnamese American mothers of unvaccinated children ages 11-14. This spotlight discusses the implications of their results and further the broader use of stories as tools to promote health and prevent cancer-particularly in underserved minority and immigrant populations.