Cancer prevention project conquers Health Literacy Award
The “2' Minutos para mudar de vida" project, produced by Ipatimup and i3S, was recently awarded the 2023 National Health Literacy Award (“PNLS”) in the category “Strategies and health literacy intervention to promote health surveillance and/or to promote vaccination”. Worth five thousand euros, this prize is awarded by the Portuguese Society of Health Literacy, with the support of the Ciência Viva agency.
Launched in 2019, the “2' Minutos para mudar de Vida” project has the main objective of promoting behavioral changes in order to prevent cancer and other non-communicable diseases. This initiative resulted in the first fiction series on cancer prevention, consisting of 20 episodes, which was broadcast on RTP in prime time. In addition to being selected for several national and international festivals, it has already won two Telly Awards, the Ciência Viva 2020 Prize, the Casa das Ciências 2020 Special Jury Prize, the MEDEA Awards Audience Prize and the 10th edition of the Sustainable Health Prize in category “Health promotion and disease prevention”.
In addition to being present on the web, mobile and social networks (Facebook and Instagram), the last component of the project was also intended to reach schools. “We found the content was being used a lot by teachers, especially in distance learning periods motivated by the pandemic, and so we created the online course "2' Minutos para mudar de Vida". It is a pedagogical resource with open access and completely free of charge, which can be used both in the classroom and in distance learning, and which constitutes a unique offer for teachers and students”, explains Nuno Teixeira Marcos, coordinator of the Ipatimup Cancer Prevention Unit.
The course is organized into 10 modules covering cancer risk factors and preventive behaviours, and allows the selection of content to be explored in the classroom and its adaptation to students’ needs. These contents can be applied in the disciplines of Natural Sciences of the 3rd year of Biology and Geology of Secondary Education, or even within the scope of the Health Promotion and Education Project.
About the National Health Literacy Award
The PNLS is designed to reward teams in Portugal that develop their research activity and that have implemented or will implement health literacy strategies. These strategies should focus on interventions related to better access, understanding, and use of health information and resources, leading to gains in the health and well-being of the recipients.
55 entities applied for this award, divided into 2 award categories. In the category “Strategies and intervention in health literacy to promote health surveillance and/or to promote vaccination”, the jury awarded the prize to the project “2 Minutos para mudar de vida” and, in the category “Strategies and intervention in health in health in the field of patient safety and empowerment, associations representing patients and caregivers”, the distinction was awarded to the project “Cuido da Minha Saúde”, a collection of illustrated books on health for the patient developed by the Laboratório Collaborative Value for Health CoLAB.