Yes, the order is correct. Public health separate from medical professions is at least 100 years old…give or take.
As I was watching and listening to the GRAMMY Awards show last night, I was struck by a similarity to public health. Public health as a concept incorporates several disciplines, all of which are needed to provide effective services and efficiently solve problems. In the same way that the Grammy Awards recognize excellence in music across genres, public health features multi-disciplinary training, issues and approaches.
Music is fun, exciting, moving and powerful…and fun and more! Researchers and other public health professionals develop and study programs that leverage the connection between youth and popular music to raise awareness of public health issues and how to prevent them. Based on this type of research, we think that when Lady Gaga promotes self-esteem via her songs and Janet Jackson demonstrates moving beyond past personal issues via her book, they can have positive influence on people’s healthy behaviors/health.
Here is an example of a collaboration between researchers, school officials and adolescents: http://tinyurl.com/4j4au3z
Volume 87, Number 3, 440-451, DOI: 10.1007/s11524-010-9435-7
Reducing HIV and AIDS through Prevention (RHAP): A Theoretically Based Approach for Teaching HIV Prevention to Adolescents through an Exploration of Popular Music
Carla Boutin-Foster, Nadine McLaughlin, Angela Gray, Anthony Ogedegbe, Ivan Hageman, Courtney Knowlton, Anna Rodriguez and Ann BeederAbstract
Using popular culture to engage students in discussions of HIV prevention is a nontraditional approach that may complement current prevention efforts and enhance the ability to reach youth who are at high risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Hip-hop or rap music is the dominant genre of music among adolescents, especially Black and Latino youth who are disproportionately impacted by HIV and AIDS. This paper describes the rationale and development of the Reducing HIV and AIDS through Prevention (RHAP) program, a school-based program that uses hip-hop/rap music as a vehicle for raising awareness among adolescents about HIV/AIDS. Constructs from the Social Cognitive Theory and the Sexual Script Theory were used in developing the program. It was piloted and evaluated among 26 middle school students in East Harlem, New York. The lessons learned from a formative evaluation of the program and the implications for developing other programs targeting public health problems are discussed. The RHAP program challenges the traditional pedagogue–student paradigm and provides an alternative approach to teaching about HIV prevention and awareness.
