Subtopic Deep Dive

Visual Storytelling in Health Communication
Research Guide

What is Visual Storytelling in Health Communication?

Visual Storytelling in Health Communication uses sequential art in comics and graphic narratives to convey public health messages, enhancing comprehension in patient education and campaigns.

Researchers study comics for health campaigns on vaccination, mental health, and COVID-19, assessing literacy accessibility and cultural fit. Over 10 papers since 2009 explore efficacy, with Kearns & Kearns (2020) at 122 citations leading on pandemic use. Ashwal & Thomas (2018) with 50 citations questions adult patient acceptance.

Curated Papers

Key Challenges

Why It Matters

Comics boost health literacy and adherence in low-literacy groups, as shown in Kearns & Kearns (2020) COVID-19 campaigns reaching mass audiences for behavioral change. Farthing & Priego (2016) highlight graphic medicine for mental health education in higher education. Rakower & Hallyburton (2022) demonstrate disease info comics improving patient recall over text.

Key Research Challenges

Adult Patient Acceptance

US cultural views see comics as juvenile, reducing physician recommendations (Ashwal & Thomas, 2018, 50 citations). Patients question format suitability for serious health topics. Studies need to address stigma in clinical settings.

Cultural Adaptation Barriers

Sequential art requires tailoring for diverse populations, complicating global campaigns (Kearns & Kearns, 2020). Literacy and visual literacy vary across cultures. Metrics for cross-cultural efficacy remain underdeveloped.

Evidence of Comprehension Gains

Quantifying multimodal literacy benefits over text is inconsistent (Hammond, 2009, 33 citations). Reader response studies show promise but lack large-scale RCTs. Long-term adherence data is sparse.

Essential Papers

The role of comics in public health communication during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ciléin Kearns, Nethmi Kearns · 2020 · Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine · 122 citations

As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the globe, evolving containment measures have created an unprecedented need for rapid and effective science communication that is able to engage the public in behavi...

Working it Through: Trauma and Autobiography in Phoebe Gloeckner’s A Child’s Life and The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Frederik Byrn Køhlert · 2015 · South Central Review · 51 citations

This article explores the relationship between autobiography, trauma, and comics in the work of Phoebe Gloeckner, and demonstrates through close readings how the visual and fragmented comics form c...

Are Comic Books Appropriate Health Education Formats to Offer Adult Patients?

Gary Ashwal, Alex Thomas · 2018 · The AMA Journal of Ethic · 50 citations

Physicians who recommend patient education comics should consider that some patients might question the appropriateness of this format, especially in the US, where a dominant cultural view of comic...

AN ANALYSIS OF EMBODIMENT AMONG SIX SUPERHEROES IN DC COMICS

Edward Avery-Natale · 2013 · Social Thought and Research · 47 citations

This study analyzes the changes in physical presentation of several DC comic book superheroes, finding that the bodies of superheroes have become far more sexualized, exaggerated, and unrealistic i...

‘Graphic Medicine’ as a Mental Health Information Resource: Insights from Comics Producers

Anthony Farthing, Ernesto Priego, Anthony Farthing et al. · 2016 · The Comics Grid Journal of Comics Scholarship · 45 citations

Recent literature suggests that a growing number of comics are being published on health-related topics, including aspects of mental health and social care (Williams 2012; Czerwiec et al 2015) and ...

COVID-19, comics, and the visual culture of contagion

Brian Callender, Shirlene Obuobi, MK Czerwiec et al. · 2020 · The Lancet · 45 citations

Comics as Research, Comics for Impact: The Case of Higher Fees, Higher Debts

Ernesto Priego · 2016 · The Comics Grid Journal of Comics Scholarship · 37 citations

Researchers have turned to comics as outputs incorporating their research findings. These comics are print and/or online publications that can lead to the wider adoption of research and enhance edu...

Reading Guide

Foundational Papers

Start with Hammond (2009, 33 citations) for multimodal literacy reader responses, then Avery-Natale (2013, 47 citations) for visual embodiment analysis foundational to health narrative design.

Recent Advances

Study Kearns & Kearns (2020, 122 citations) for COVID applications, Rakower & Hallyburton (2022, 28 citations) for disease comics, Callender et al. (2020, 45 citations) for contagion visuals.

Core Methods

Reader response analysis (Hammond, 2009); citation impact tracking; cultural appropriateness surveys (Ashwal & Thomas, 2018); behavioral change metrics from campaigns (Kearns & Kearns, 2020).

How PapersFlow Helps You Research Visual Storytelling in Health Communication

Discover & Search

Research Agent uses searchPapers on 'comics health communication COVID' to find Kearns & Kearns (2020), then citationGraph reveals 122 citing works and findSimilarPapers uncovers Callender et al. (2020). exaSearch scans OpenAlex for 250M+ papers on graphic medicine mental health.

Analyze & Verify

Analysis Agent applies readPaperContent to extract Kearns & Kearns (2020) behavioral change metrics, verifyResponse with CoVe checks claims against Hammond (2009), and runPythonAnalysis with pandas plots citation trends vs. comprehension scores. GRADE grading scores evidence from Ashwal & Thomas (2018) as moderate for acceptance barriers.

Synthesize & Write

Synthesis Agent detects gaps in cultural adaptation post-Priego (2016), flags contradictions between superhero embodiment (Avery-Natale, 2013) and health comics. Writing Agent uses latexEditText for manuscript sections, latexSyncCitations for 10-paper bib, latexCompile for PDF, exportMermaid for comprehension flowchart diagrams.

Use Cases

"Compare comprehension rates of comics vs text in health education across literacy levels"

Research Agent → searchPapers + findSimilarPapers → Analysis Agent → runPythonAnalysis (meta-analysis on Hammond 2009 + Rakower 2022 scores) → CSV export of effect sizes table.

"Draft LaTeX review on COVID comics in public health"

Synthesis Agent → gap detection on Kearns 2020 + Callender 2020 → Writing Agent → latexGenerateFigure (pandemic timeline) + latexSyncCitations + latexCompile → peer-ready PDF.

"Find code for analyzing reader gaze in health comics"

Research Agent → paperExtractUrls on Avery-Natale 2013 → Code Discovery → paperFindGithubRepo + githubRepoInspect → Python scripts for embodiment metrics.

Automated Workflows

Deep Research workflow conducts systematic review: searchPapers (50+ comics health papers) → citationGraph → structured report on efficacy trends from Kearns (2020). DeepScan applies 7-step analysis with CoVe checkpoints to verify Farthing & Priego (2016) mental health insights. Theorizer generates theory on multimodal literacy from Hammond (2009) reader responses.

Try Doxa for Visual Storytelling in Health Communication Research

Frequently Asked Questions

What defines visual storytelling in health communication?

Sequential art in comics conveys health messages for campaigns and patient leaflets, improving literacy across levels (Kearns & Kearns, 2020).

What methods assess comics in health education?

Reader response studies (Hammond, 2009) and cultural acceptance surveys (Ashwal & Thomas, 2018) measure comprehension and adherence.

What are key papers?

Kearns & Kearns (2020, 122 citations) on COVID comics; Farthing & Priego (2016, 45 citations) on graphic medicine; Rakower & Hallyburton (2022, 28 citations) on disease info.