Pictures, places, and health: MPH student reflections on a health disparities photovoice assignment

This presentation focuses on an applied graduate-level health disparities course assignment designed to examine a specific health issue, introduce principles around community-based participatory research (CBPR), engage students in aspects of community assessment and introduce the methodology of photovoice.

The MPH students identified childhood obesity as an important health issue within the Philadelphia metropolitan region generally, but also within a specific area of West Philadelphia. The issue was examined in the context of social and environmental determinants of health as well as broader public health efforts such as Healthy People 2020.

The presentation describes the assignment approach, photovoice and CBPR principles, the process of synthesizing the consequences of childhood obesity across the lifespan (i.e. for individuals as well as communities), and the information gathering process necessary to represent the topic via images as well as to inform the development of recommendations for local initiatives/efforts to address childhood obesity.

Students will discuss opportunities for a local policy stakeholder as an element of their efforts to advocate for policy change. In addition, students will underscore the importance of community perspectives, identify elements of the assignment that will guide them as public health professionals and list other lessons learned.