The Impact of Narrative Engagement Components in Thai Health-Themed Films on Health Attitudes among Young Adult Audiences

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the impact of narrative engagement components in Thai health-themed films on health attitudes among Thai young adults aged 20–35 years. The study applied the Knowledge–Attitude–Practice framework, focusing on the attitudinal dimension, in conjunction with narrative engagement theory. A quantitative cross-sectional design was employed. The sample consisted of 218 participants who had watched at least one Thai health-themed film released in commercial cinemas. Data were collected using an online questionnaire that demonstrated high content validity (S-CVI/Ave = 0.95) and acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.79–0.87). Spearman’s rank correlation analysis indicated that viewing frequency of Thai health-themed films was not significantly associated with health knowledge (ρ = –0.009, 95% CI = –0.142 to 0.124, p = 0.895) or health attitudes (ρ = 0.072, 95% CI = –0.061 to 0.203, p = 0.287). However, multiple regression analysis based on the theoretical model showed that perceived realism of film content (β = 0.854, 95% CI = 0.176 to 1.532, p = 0.014) and the perception that films could shift viewers’ perspectives toward healthcare professionals or patients (β = 1.407, 95% CI = 0.730 to 2.082, p < 0.001) were positively and significantly associated with health attitudes, explaining 50.1% of the variance (R² = 0.501).These findings suggest that the quality of storytelling in Thai health-themed films, particularly in terms of perceived realism and perspective-based engagement with characters, plays a more important role in shaping health attitudes among young adult audiences than viewing frequency alone. The results also highlight the potential of commercial films as embedded health media, especially when viewers perceive content realism and exhibit perspective-related responses to characters, which are associated with individual-level health attitudes.