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Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: We developed and broadcast a Spanish language radio novella in 2011-2012 as part of the county’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative. Following the Sabido entertainment education strategy, the serial drama, Promesas y Traiciones, was developed with extensive community input. With funding from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Diabetes Research and Training Center, we pilot tested the first 12 episodes of the series.
Methods: Members of the intended audience were recruited for the pilot test via radio and newspaper ads. We met with the participants on four occasions over four months: a pretest / listening session; two additional listening sessions; and a posttest session. All activities were conducted in a group setting. To facilitate communication and accommodate low literacy levels all data were collected via an audience response system (“clickers”). Questions were projected in Spanish on power point slides, while a ‘host’ read each one aloud, game show style. Participants were equipped with clickers to indicate their responses. Response data were collected by the system and stored as an Excel file. Measures included frequency of talking about the primary topics; perceived susceptibility to diabetes; knowledge of severity, risk factors, diabetes signs and symptoms, and preventive actions and dietary behaviors. Data were analyzed as simple pre/post comparisons.
Results: Forty-nine people attended the first session and 31 completed both the pretest and the posttest. Ages ranged from 30 to over 70 years with the majority between 40 and 61. Sixty-one percent had a high school education or better. Almost half were originally from Mexico. Of the three behaviors assessed via self report – eating fried foods, drinking sweet drinks, and eating fruits and vegetables – we saw a positive change for two: the percent reporting eating fried foods 4-7 days per week decreased from 41.6% to 22.6%; the percent reporting eating at least two portions of fruits and vegetables daily increased from 32.3% to 45.1%. Although a slightly increased percent reported drinking no sweet drinks, there was a greater increase in those reporting 3-4 cans per day. Additional positive changes were seen in relation to eating fried foods: confidence to avoid fatty food increased as did the belief that a diet rich in fried food is related to diabetes.
Conclusions: Although this pilot test showed few statistically significant changes, most of the pre-to-post differences were in a positive direction. We found the fried food related items of particular interest because the modeling of consequences in the novella was especially vivid in regard to fried foods. An overweight character who has diabetes eats several empanadas (fried meat pies) despite protests from her daughter in episode 5, claiming, “The only think that I want is another one of those empanadas.” In episode 8 this character suffers a heart attack and she dies in episode 11.
Implications for research and/or practice: This finding supports an important tenet of social cognitive theory and entertainment education approaches: vividly modeled consequences of a behavior serve to effectively influence that behavior.