title: Visual art and breast health promotion: artists' perspectives.
abstract: Unique methodologies to promote health are important to meet the needs of various populations. This paper presents a collaborative approach among nursing, visual arts, and women's studies to promote breast health using visual art. The purpose of this paper is to describe the project from the perspectives of the artists, gain insight into breast health, and understand the use of visual art as a health promotion tool. A structured interview format was employed and data were thematically analyzed. The three main themes that emerged were a strong personal connection to and fear of breast cancer, the need and desire to promote health within the community, and the uni-dimensional nature of breast cancer and breast health. The interviews demonstrated that visual art is an innovative and adaptive methodology to promote breast health.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Renée S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.forename: Susan B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Gold-Smith
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Forrest
mesh_terms: D001155:Art Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001296:Audiovisual Aids / Q000592:standards*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020380:Needs Assessment; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016387:Women's Health