Developing Participatory Mapping Tools for Fostering Health Literacy Skill Building Among Immigrant Youth in San Francisco

BACKGROUND: In order to reduce health disparities among U.S. immigrant communities interdisciplinary problem-solving and community partnership models are necessary. Citizen Science attempts to generate data that would not... [ view full abstract ]

BACKGROUND: In order to reduce health disparities among U.S. immigrant communities interdisciplinary problem-solving and community partnership models are necessary. Citizen Science attempts to generate data that would not otherwise exist, and in the process engage communities to increase public health literacy. One of the main goals of Participatory Research is to give voice to individuals and communities often not represented in traditional research, and to create locally produced evidence that is relevant to health promotion programs. In the area of mapping and health disparities, much of the focus has been on analyzing geospatial information in order to identify ‘hot spots’ for public health attention. Engaging with community members in high disparity settings through generating participatory maps is a logical next step for mapping research to undertake to influence local decisions about health programs.

METHODS: With guidance from English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers and their adolescent students within a summer school program exploring food choices, media literacy, computer mapping, marketing of health messages, and social factors, we developed a series of participatory mapping tools, using free mapping software from Google Earth and Instagram, a social media platform for posting photographs.

RESULTS: Examples of mapping projects applying citizen science principles to engage adolescents to build public health literacy skills include: creation of a world map displaying family recipes that have been made more healthy; creation of a field trip that allows students to create a neighborhood map in real time that includes perceptions in the form of photos and comments (as well as traditional map concepts); and a group Instagram collage based on a reactions to unhealthy food marketing in a selected neighborhood route.

CONCLUSION: Free mapping and media formats can provide opportunities to develop citizen science projects applying principles of participatory mapping to health disparities topics of community interest.