Animation and Humor In Patient Education. A Film About Acute Back Pain To Be Distributed On Web and App
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Abstract
Between 70 and 80 percent of the adult population in Norway suffer from acute back pain at least once during their lifetime. The knowledge about how to act in such situations, among the general public as well as physicians and other health professionals, is inadequate. Fear of hurting their back even more makes people inactive instead of doing the desirable: to act as normal as possible. The aim of the film is to address and communicate to the viewer how to 1) normalize the situation, 2) encourage the person to be active and 3) show what to do when experiencing acute back pain. The tool is use of humor and animation, distributed via web and APP.
Humor can be useful to focus on a problem, as long as humor targets the problem and not the person experiencing the problem. Also, by using animated film, one can go further than documentary and dramatized films. Animation has three important characteristics: 1) it simplifies and removes unnecessary information, making it easier to focus the content. 2) it distils by pulling out an extract of the message, which means that you can tell more in less time in a 'universe' where imagination has larger room. And 3) it generalizes; by not acting on real people the characters in the animated films becomes representatives of characteristics in ourselves and / or others.
From this project we have learned a lot about how creative animators, physicians and health professionals can work together to create a product that has both health an artistic qualities.
The film was produced during spring 2014. Autumn 2014 will be used to spread knowledge about the film via social media and other channels. The next step is to produce an APP. The APP is meant to serve as a reminder in relation to the exercises illustrated in the film and a form of diary of the back pain. The APP also opens up to more interactive elements like information-sharing, e.g. for use in studies and for the user to register her own progress/effects etc.
Humor can be useful to focus on a problem, as long as humor targets the problem and not the person experiencing the problem. Also, by using animated film, one can go further than documentary and dramatized films. Animation has three important characteristics: 1) it simplifies and removes unnecessary information, making it easier to focus the content. 2) it distils by pulling out an extract of the message, which means that you can tell more in less time in a 'universe' where imagination has larger room. And 3) it generalizes; by not acting on real people the characters in the animated films becomes representatives of characteristics in ourselves and / or others.
From this project we have learned a lot about how creative animators, physicians and health professionals can work together to create a product that has both health an artistic qualities.
The film was produced during spring 2014. Autumn 2014 will be used to spread knowledge about the film via social media and other channels. The next step is to produce an APP. The APP is meant to serve as a reminder in relation to the exercises illustrated in the film and a form of diary of the back pain. The APP also opens up to more interactive elements like information-sharing, e.g. for use in studies and for the user to register her own progress/effects etc.
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