The Impact of Health Education Workshops on Refugees' Understanding of Health Living

The Refugee Education and Clinic Team (REACT) is a local organization led by students at Arizona State University and the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine with the purpose of improving the health of refugees and asylees. One way in which REACT aims to improve the health of refugees and asylees is through health education workshops, which inform refugees about health conditions and management options. The purpose of this project was to analyze how REACT’s health education workshop about obesity impacted refugees’ understanding of healthy living. This project implemented a pre- and post-presentation survey at REACT’s obesity workshop to measure refugees’ understanding of healthy living. Overall, a pre-existing understanding of the importance of healthy eating and daily exercise was measured and an improvement in their understanding of the symptoms associated with obesity was recorded.