The use of health education strategies and art in rural health prevention focusing on alcohol abuse/addiction and other drugs

Introduction: Health education is a relevant strategy to prevent alcohol and other drugs addiction. The objective of this study is to analyze health education strategies used to prevent drug abuse and addiction in rural areas.

Methods: This study is an integrative review. The study included articles indexed in Virtual Health Library, Periodicals Portal bases from CAPES, Brazilian Digital Library of Theses, PubMed, and SciELO. Relationships between health education strategies and art were sought, without obtaining satisfactory results.

Results: The selection of studies obtained 1173 articles. After exclusion, 21 publications were included in the sample. The predominant country of origin of articles was the USA, with 14 references. The lack of Latin American articles is highlighted. Overall, among the interventions carried out with a focus on preventing addiction to alcohol and other drugs, those that considered the specific cultural context of the studied community were relevant. Strategies adapted to the rural context must be built according to local values, beliefs, and practices. Motivational Interviewing proved to be an effective intervention for alcohol addiction harm reduction strategies.

Discussion: The frequency of harmful use of alcohol and other drugs in the rural population highlights the need to implement public policies focused on local communities. It is essential to adopt actions focused on health promotion. There is a need for further studies on health education strategies, including their relationships with the arts, in the context of preventing drug abuse in the rural population, in order to enable more effective interventions.