Production of digital social technologies to promote health and digital citizenship with high school students

BACKGROUND Due to the exposure of vulnerable populations to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, there is a great demand for public educational strategies aimed at controlling these diseases in Brazil.
OBJETIVES This study assessed the conception and application of a methodology to promote health with high school students combining ArtScience activities with digital tools.
METHODS Based on the premise that collaborative practices of popular health education foster potential communication actions that, in addition to being creative, participatory, supportive and entrepreneurial, can generate solutions for health promotion and disease prevention, we developed the PRODÍGIAS Course (Production of Digital Health Learning Objects) for the creation and development of Digital Social Technologies in Health (DSTH).
FINDINGS The methodology was validated in three public institutions with 85 high school students, who created 14 DSTHs including blogs, videos and games.
MAIN CONCLUSIONS For the participants, the main aspects that most influenced their learning and the overall success of the experience were the ArtScience dynamics and teamwork activities, which included the prototyping of solutions grounded in the realities of their territories, contributing to the promotion of digital citizenship and community empowerment for health promotion and disease prevention.