ArticleHealth promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals2025
Harnessing the power of empathy, visual art and patient narratives to improve health literacy: An exploratory study.
Article in Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Development of a health literacy framework for primary health care service users in Qatar: a mixed methods study.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Harnessing the power of empathy, visual art and patient narratives to improve health literacy: An exploratory study.Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals · 2025Article
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Abstract
issue addressedHealth-related information can often be overwhelming for consumers, frequently infused with complex medical terminology that is difficult to understand and apply. Historically empathic connection, art and narratives have played key roles in communicating with diverse populations however collectively have received little recognition as a modality to improve health literacy. This study aimed to investigate the empathetic connection between art and patient narratives with a view to improve health literacy in the wider community.
methodsNine recently discharged patients and one carer from a regional hospital were paired with 10 tertiary visual arts students for interview. Each narrative was transformed into visual art and exhibited at a community art gallery. The Empathy Quotient (EQ), Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and self-completed questionnaires assessed empathy and functional well-being. Health literacy was evaluated through community response surveys post-exhibition exposure.
resultsStudent artist participants' EQ Cognitive Empathy (EQ-CE) scores were associated with 'Emotional Reactivity' (EQ-ER) (p = .038). SF-36 scores revealed that role limitations due to physical health and emotional problems had the greatest impact on patient/carer participant's life at the time. The SF-36 General Health domain was associated with the EQ-ER total score (p = .044). Exhibition surveys revealed that 96.9% of observers had learnt something new about illness or injury. SO WHAT?: Although a relatively small study, our findings suggest patient/carer narratives and visual art is a simple yet effective modality for health service organisations to facilitate affective learning and improve health literacy when engaging with consumers.
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