Exploring Ways to Improve Cancer Knowledge

September 30, 2009 10:37 AM

What caused Pinocchio’s nose to grow longer? What was the name of your second grade teacher?

If the first question seemed much easier to answer, you’re not alone, which is why USC Annenberg School for Communication professor and principal investigator Sheila Murphy and joint principal investigator Lourdes Baezconde-Garbinati and their colleagues will research narratives as a way to learn and retain information about such important topics as cancer.

Baezconde-Garbinati is an associate professor of research at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“Transforming Cancer, Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior Through Narrative” was awarded a five-year $3.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Others involved with the grant include Sandra Ball-Rokeach (co-principal investigator), USC Annenberg; Robert Haile (co-P.I.), USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center; Sandra de Castro Buffington (co-P.I.), Hollywood, Health & Society at USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center; Chih-Ping Chou (co-investigator), Keck School of Medicine and USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center; Vickie Cortessis (co-investigator), USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center; Doe Mayer (co-P.I.), USC Annenberg/USC School of Cinematic Arts; Meghan Bridget Moran (postdoctoral associate/research associate), Keck School of Medicine; Laila Muderspach (co-investigator), Los Angeles County USC Hospital; Gerry Power (consultant), BBC World Service Trust; Thomas Valente (co-P.I.), Keck School of Medicine and USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center; and Mariana Amatullo, Art Center College of Design.

This team of medical researchers, script writers, artists, physicians, psychologists, anthropologists, communication scholars and public health professionals will examine and reinvent how health-related information is conveyed.

The purpose of the research is to challenge the underlying assumption that the traditional straightforward recitation of the facts is the optimal way to convey health-related information.

As Murphy pointed out, the power and perseverance of a narrative or story structure has been recognized and utilized for thousands of years, but when it comes time to craft health messages designed to convey crucial, potentially life-saving health information, Western medicine all but ignores the use of narrative. The proposed research empirically tests whether utilizing a narrative format might produce a greater and longer lasting impact on knowledge, attitudes and prevention behavior.

The research also questions the assumption of a “one-size-fits-all” message strategy by testing whether narratives may be particularly effective for cultures with a strong oral history, for recent immigrants, for older generations and for populations with low literacy.

“Although the research will focus on breast and cervical cancer, the results have clear implications for virtually all health care communication,” Murphy said. “This research could radically change how health messages are conveyed across different ethnic groups, generations and modalities.”

The grant is classified under the National Institutes of Health director’s new T-R01 program that strives to accelerate the current pace of discovery through the support of highly innovative research.

T-R01s provide a new opportunity for scientists that is unmatched by any other NIH program. Since no budget cap is imposed and preliminary results are not required, scientists are free to propose new ideas that may require significant resources to pursue. They are also given the flexibility to work in large, complex teams if the complexity of the research problem demands it.

NIH director Francis S. Collins said the appeal of this and other recent NIH grants is that investigators are encouraged to challenge the status quo with innovative ideas, while being given the necessary resources to test them.

“The fact that we continue to receive such strong proposals for funding through the programs reflects the wealth of creative ideas in science today,” Collins said.

TAGS: health, medicine, research

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