Use of Korean dramas to facilitate precision mental health understanding and discussion for Asian Americans

Abstract

Summary Precision mental health holds great potential for revolutionizing care and reducing the burden of mental illness. All races and ethnicities such as Asian Americans, the fastest growing racial group in the United States (U.S.), need to be engaged in precision mental health research. Owing to its global popularity, Korean drama (‘K-drama’) television shows may be an effective educational tool to increase precision mental health knowledge, attitudes and behaviors among Asian Americans. This qualitative study examined the participants’ perspectives about and acceptance of using K-dramas to educate and engage Asian Americans about precision mental health. Twelve workshops were conducted in English, Vietnamese and Korean with a convenience sample in the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. (n = 122). Discussions were coded for themes. Findings revealed that all language groups reported positive reactions to using K-dramas to learn about precision health, genetics and mental health. Overall, participants shared that they learned about topics that are not generally talked about (e.g. precision health; genetic testing; mental health), from other people’s perspectives, and the importance of mental health. Participants expressed how much they enjoyed the workshop, how they felt relieved due to the workshop, thought the workshop was interesting, and had an opportunity for self-reflection/healing. This pilot test demonstrated that K-dramas has promise to be used as a health educational tool in a workshop format focused on mental health among a diverse group of Asian Americans. Given the widespread access to K-dramas, they present a scalable opportunity for increasing awareness about specific health topics.