LifeLab Soweto

The LifeLab UK team from the University of Southampton based in England have over a decade of experience in increasing health literacy in youth and adolescents. Working alongside this team, the LifeLab Soweto project was initiated. The initial step was to conduct a needs analysis with young adults living in Soweto to understand how health is perceived and what are the gaps for health literacy that are contextually relevant. This study is comprised of two phases:

 The first phase was to understand need and cocreate a health literacy intervention, and

 The second phase to test the feasibility of the developed health literacy interventions through a LifeLab exhibition with Sowetan youth.

Phase 1 – Needs analysis and Cocreation of materials

NEET youth (age 18-25 years) from the areas surrounding the Jabulani site of operation were invited to form a ‘Youth Health Council’. These youth (21 males and 19 females) were then involved in multiple focus group discussions to understand health perceptions, needs and literacy gaps and to co-create health literacy materials and tools youth could identify with.

Participatory workshops with the youth council identified the top priority for health literacy training in this group as stress and the effects of stress on mental and physical health and health behaviour. Stress emanated in young people’s lives from lack of employment and education, as well as from relationships, food security and daily experienced living conditions. As a result, prototypes, narratives, and educational material were co-developed, leveraging and adapting existing materials in the Co-creation process through the collaboration with LifeLab UK. The materials and tools were adapted for the age group and the context in Jabulani.

Phase 2 – LifeLab Feasibility Testing

The second phase aimed to use the health literacy materials and tools with 100 NEET Sowetan youth (18-25 years) who were not a part of the intervention develop-

Epigenetics

Stressmaynotjustaffectyoubutyourfuturechildren,thisiswhereepigeneticscomeintoplay. Epigeneticsisthestudyofhowyourbehavioursandenvironmentcancausechangesthataffect thewaygeneswork.EpigeneticchangesarereversibleanddonotchangeyourDNAsequence butcanchangehowyourbodyreadsaDNAsequence.

Let’stakealookatthevideoonthescreenaboutepigenetics: https://youtu.be/NvonvYx-3-0

Whatareyourthoughtsonthevideowejustwatched?WhatimpactwillSifiso’shealthand choiceshaveonhischildren?

Stressandcardiovasculardisease

ment. The aim was to evaluate their perceptions of the health literacy intervention through survey feedback and interviews. This was done by creating a LifeLab Soweto exhibition space where prototypes were displayed including charts, instructions, and a work booklet. Young people were given the booklet and encouraged to explore the exhibition with minimal assistance following a set of instructions and recording their health indicators in the workbook, to promote self-learning. Results are compared with a fictional character, Sifiso and his aunt. The workbook takes the participant through a learning journey exploring Sifiso and his families experience. An example is shown below:

Peoplethathavechronicstressaremoreatriskforheartdiseaseandstroke(cardiovascular disease).Oneofthereasonsthishappensisbecauseourbloodvessels(veinsandarteries) becomestiffandarelessflexible(orstretchy)sodon’tcopesowellwiththeeverydaydemandsof ourbodies.Theflexibilityofourbodiesandtheflexibilityofourarteriesisoftenrelated.

TheSitandreachtest:

•TheSitandreachtestisagoodflexibility testofourhamstringsandlowerback.

•Measuringtheflexibilityofourlowerback andhamstringscangiveagood indicationofhowflexibleourarteriesare.

The team have now collected data from 107 young adults, with over 30 in-depth interviews conducted and analysis of the data is ongoing!