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Health Promotion Team - 2007 Intercultural Field School in China

In the Summer of 2007, the Center for Community Studies at Peabody College spearheaded a program centered on community research and action in Guangxi Autonomous Province, China.  Both undergraduate and graduate students worked together in a Field School for Intercultural Research and Education—the first of its kind in East Asia comprised of Vanderbilt students and Chinese collaborators.  Field School participants focused on one of four topics and designed and implemented projects for each: Health Promotion, Education, Rural Development and Urban Development.  Each of the four groups addressed needs in the rapidly-growing, industrial city of Liuzhou in Guangxi.  In the semester immediately prior to travel, participants enrolled in a Human and Organizational Development (HOD) course titled Community Health, Education, and Change in China.  The course educated students in social, cultural, economic, and political aspects of the Guangxi Province while preparing each group for summer work in Guangxi.

Photo Credit: Douglas Perkins

The Health Promotion Team, comprised of four undergraduate students, met with tremendous success, working closely with the Liuzhou Workers’ Hospital, the School of Public Health at the Guangxi University of Medicine, and the local Center for Disease Control (CDC).  Despite language barriers in online communication prior to travel, as well as an unexpected array of health needs and conditions in the local Chinese population once in Liuzhou, the team’s passion and flexibility created for two projects which effectively addressed dietary behaviors and attitudes in the city.  Participants focusing on the Health Promotion aspect of the Field School distributed surveys assessing dietary attitude and practice towards nutrition to approximately 100 students in a local middle school.  Each student who completed a survey entered an essay contest which provided an opportunity to voice opinions about unhealthy and healthy food choices in Liuzhou, and about the presence and popularity of Western fast food, such as KFC and McDonald’s.  In addition, the team found anemia to be a prominent condition among kindergarteners in Liuzhou schools.  Surveys examining the daily habits and dietary behaviors of children were distributed to parents and teachers in five local kindergartens.  The data findings from each of two projects were recorded and analyzed, showing promise for future publication in health and/or behavioral science journals.