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Primary Submission Category: Public Health Communication and Trust
Participatory Filmmaking as a Community-Driven Strategy to Strengthen Maternal Health Engagement and Healthcare Trust
Authors: Lesly Dominguez Alvarez, Julia Killar, Rejoice Obiora, Fathima Wakeel, Michael Kramp,
Presenting Author: Lesly Dominguez Alvarez*
Our evaluation study advances population health science by integrating narrative-based intervention strategies while centering women as the knowledge producers rather than recipients of clinical messaging. The intervention demonstrates how community-owned storytelling can function as a pragmatic and scalable tool to improve maternal health engagements and strengthen relationships with the healthcare system and providers.
In Sierra Leone, structural barriers and communication gaps between healthcare providers and patients contribute to delayed care-seeking and poor maternal health outcomes. Mothers of Sierra Leone (MOSL) positions community storytelling as a trust-building infrastructure by shifting health communication power from institutions to women themselves, generating new insights into how participatory storytelling interventions can strengthen trust and engagement with maternal healthcare systems and offer a replicable framework for low-resource settings. MOSL is a community-based population health communication intervention that uses participatory filmmaking workshops to address maternal health disparities and distrust in the healthcare system.
Our 12-month mixed-methods research study is guided by the research question: How does participatory filmmaking influence maternal health knowledge, health-seeking behaviors, and trust in the healthcare system among women in Sierra Leone? This research initiative emphasizes a community-based participatory research design in which women collaboratively create short films using smartphones to share lived experiences, address misinformation, and identify locally relevant maternal health concerns.
To evaluate impact, we administered pre- and post-intervention surveys assessing maternal health knowledge, care-seeking, intentions and behaviors, and trust in healthcare providers. Focus groups and surveys further explored these changes in perceptions of the health system, communication dynamics, and community empowerment.