Engaging Minority Youth in Diabetes Prevention Efforts Through a Participatory, Spoken-Word Social Marketing Campaign

To examine the reach, efficacy, and adoption of The Bigger Picture, a type 2 diabetes (T2DM) social marketing campaign that uses spoken-word public service announcements (PSAs) to teach youth about socioenvironmental conditions influencing T2DM risk.

A nonexperimental pilot dissemination evaluation through high school assemblies and a Web-based platform were used.

The study took place in San Francisco Bay Area high schools during 2013.

In the study, 885 students were sampled from 13 high schools.

A 1-hour assembly provided data, poet performances, video PSAs, and Web-based platform information. A Web-based platform featured the campaign Web site and social media.

Student surveys preassembly and postassembly (knowledge, attitudes), assembly observations, school demographics, counts of Web-based utilization, and adoption were measured.

Descriptive statistics, McNemar's χ² test, and mixed modeling accounting for clustering were used to analyze data.

The campaign included 23 youth poet-created PSAs. It reached >2400 students (93% self-identified non-white) through school assemblies and has garnered >1,000,000 views of Web-based video PSAs. School participants demonstrated increased short-term knowledge of T2DM as preventable, with risk driven by socioenvironmental factors (34% preassembly identified environmental causes as influencing T2DM risk compared to 83% postassembly), and perceived greater personal salience of T2DM risk reduction (p < .001 for all). The campaign has been adopted by regional public health departments.

The Bigger Picture campaign showed its potential for reaching and engaging diverse youth. Campaign messaging is being adopted by stakeholders.