Books by Andrew Pleasant
Papers by Andrew Pleasant
Results from the Canyon Ranch Institute Life Enhancement Program (CRI LEP), a program aimed at lo... more Results from the Canyon Ranch Institute Life Enhancement Program (CRI LEP), a program aimed at low-income adults in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Arizona, demonstrate that a health literacy, integrative health approach to preventing chronic disease can have significant and positive impacts on overall health and wellness. The CRI LEP includes 36 hours of participatory, hands-on, and didactic group sessions, fitness instruction, cooking demonstrations, social support, a nutritionist-guided grocery store trip, and extensive evaluation. Every participant receives at least four one-hour one-on-one planning consultations with health professionals in integrative health, nutrition, fitness, and behavioral health. Data collection occurs at pre, post, three months post, one year post, and process evaluation stages, including nutrition, physical fitness, stress, and a serum analysis that included cholesterol, hemoglobin AIC, and C-reactive protein. Evaluation results of four cohorts (N=57) sho...
Arts & Health, 2014
This article reports on the process outcomes of the first pilot project of the Arts for Behavior ... more This article reports on the process outcomes of the first pilot project of the Arts for Behavior Change (ABC) Program, held in two neighboring shantytowns in Lima, Perú. The ABC Program improved health literacy through the arts to empower communities to identify and adopt healthy behaviors. The ABC Program created Theater for Health, a new approach that integrates theories and practices from the Theater of the Oppressed family of methods with the best practices of health literacy and an evidence-based approach to health. Preliminary findings show a high level of community engagement and empowerment, and intention to change hygiene practices.
The arts can be a powerful strategy to promote healthy minds and bodies. Through the arts we can ... more The arts can be a powerful strategy to promote healthy minds and bodies. Through the arts we can communicate multiple messages that promote healthy behaviors and ultimately health outcomes to individuals and communities. Health literacy allows the public and personnel working in all health-related contexts to find, understand, evaluate, communicate, and use information to make informed decisions. Research shows that health literacy is a predictor of overall health status. Using the arts and health literacy to advance household hygiene is a multi-layered, innovative, culturally and linguistically appropriate approach to improving public health. This project utilizes the arts and health literacy as a conceptual framework to improve household hygiene in a shantytown pueblos jvenes in Lima, Per. It combines the arts - music, dance, and theater - with the best practices of health literacy to prevent morbidity through improved hygiene. In this project, community members themselves will id...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic causes fear, as its immediate consequences for t... more The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic causes fear, as its immediate consequences for the public have produced unprecedented challenges for the education and healthcare systems. We aimed to validate the fear of COVID-19 scale (FCoV-19S) and examine the association of its scores with health literacy and health-related behaviors among medical students. A cross-sectional study was conducted from 7 to 29 April 2020 on 5423 students at eight universities across Vietnam, including five universities in the North, one university in the Center, two universities in the South. An online survey questionnaire was used to collect data on participants’ characteristics, health literacy, fear of COVID-19 using the FCoV-19S, and health-related behaviors. The results showed that seven items of the FCoV-19S strongly loaded on one component, explained 62.15% of the variance, with good item–scale convergent validity and high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.90). Higher health literacy...
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 2016
This report describes the development and validation of a technology-based system that integrates... more This report describes the development and validation of a technology-based system that integrates data on food choice, nutrition, and plate waste to generate feedback reports summarizing students' dietary intake at school meals. Cafeteria staff used the system to document the school lunch choices of seventh-graders (n = 37) in an urban charter school for 5 months. Plate waste was assessed by research staff using a visual estimation method that was validated against directly weighed plate waste. Most food choices (97.1%) were correctly recorded through the system. Visual estimates of plate waste had excellent interrater reliability (r's ≥ .94) and agreement with direct measurements (ρ's ≥ .75). Plate waste assessment required approximately 10 s/tray. Fifty-four percent of parents received feedback reports consistently. The technology-based system enabled staff to monitor dietary intake accurately at school meals. The system could potentially inform lunch menu modifications aimed at reducing plate waste.
Centre For Literacy of Quebec, 2008
We review the academic literature (n=113) that addresses effects on human health and well-being t... more We review the academic literature (n=113) that addresses effects on human health and well-being that occur when people interact with open spaces and nature in urban settings and identify key environmental design and research principles, and commonly used research methodologies and outcome variables. We identify and discuss a critical balance between reductionism and a holistic and integrative approach. That balance is as critical to successful designs of open spaces intending to improve human health and well-being as it is to successful research to document those effects. We address gaps in the existing evidence base and recommend directions which researchers and practitioners should adopt in order to further advance design and research in this area. In terms of research, there is currently no single gold standard' methodology used when examining the effects of open spaces in urban places upon health and/or the healing process. This presents a clear opportunity to advance the fi...
To create a successful integrative health team, an important, yet often neglected, aspect is to e... more To create a successful integrative health team, an important, yet often neglected, aspect is to engage the team in developing an awareness of the targeted population’s health and the surrounding environment (Healthography). The Canyon Ranch Institute Life Enhancement Program (CRI LEP) directly engages community members in identifying the unique socioeconomic health factors in their lives and their community through formative research. Those findings are infused throughout a training process for the CRI LEP integrative health core team made up of qualified health professionals in nutrition, fitness, medicine, spirituality, behavioral health, and stress management. These professionals already live and work in the community, usually at a traditional health care provider, and are trained in integrative health and forged into a truely integrative health team focusing on preventing chronic disease. The CRI LEP and the training of the core team is, thus, tailored to each community. The cor...
Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Communication, 2010
Public Understanding of Science, 2002
This paper examines the growth and development of the literature of “environmental communication”... more This paper examines the growth and development of the literature of “environmental communication” research. The paper collects citations of all papers matching specified keywords covering environmental communication topics in the social science journal literature from relevant indices. The indices used were: the Institute for Scientific Information's (ISI) Social Sciences Citation Index (Web of Science), the ISI Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science), Communication s, PsycINFO, Anthropological Literature, Sociology Abstracts and Periodical Abstracts (Pro-Quest Direct). The paper analyzes the collected citations for journal of publication, date, and frequency of publication by year, author, and keywords and topics. The paper shows what topics of attention, what fields, and what journals have been interested in publishing environmental communication research, and some of the authors leading the way. In addition, basic topics of interest for environmental communication research are discerned. The literature review shows the need for a more centralized point of publication for environmental communication research.
Background: Pneumonia, diarrhea and measles are the leading causes of death in children worldwide... more Background: Pneumonia, diarrhea and measles are the leading causes of death in children worldwide, but have a disproportionately low share of international funding and media attention [1–3]. In comparison, AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria- diseases that also significantly affect children – receive considerably more funding and have relatively high media coverage. This study investigates the potential relationship between media agenda setting and funding levels in the context of the actual burden of disease. Methods: The news databases Lexis Nexis, Factiva, and Google News Archive were searched for the diseases AIDS, TB and Malaria and for lower funded pediatric diseases: childhood pneumonia, diarrhea, and measles. A sample of news articles across geographic regions was also analyzed using a qualitative narrative frame analysis of how the media stories were told. Results: There were significantly more articles addressing the Global Fund diseases compared to the lower funded pediatric d...
Information Services & Use
Health literacy research and interventions have provided multiple tools to improve communication ... more Health literacy research and interventions have provided multiple tools to improve communication between professionals and patients in clinical contexts for many years. Despite the reality that many patients participate in clinical trials in conjunction with standard medical care, only recently have efforts extended to address and improve the health literacy of both clinical trial researchers and participants. To date, the primary focus of health literacy activities in clinical trials has centered on communicating trial results to trial participants. This report describes the opportunities and strategies necessary to layer health literacy activities across the clinical trial process from consent to conclusion.
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Books by Andrew Pleasant
Papers by Andrew Pleasant