Expanding youth engagement in health research: The Lancet Youth Advisory Panel
Alongside the growing focus on adolescents in nutrition and health research during recent years, the benefits of engaging youth during the research process have been highlighted. In early 2021, a report by the Wellcome Trust showed that youth participation improves the quality of research since adolescents are able to identify the needs that are pertinent to them, tailor research methods to their interests and experiences and access their peers and communities for more effective data collection and research dissemination (Das et al, 2020). By active engagement in the research process, young people are also heard and empowered through the development of valuable knowledge and skills to improve their nutrition and health behaviours. However, few examples exist of effective youth engagement in practice which is likely due to a range of barriers including a lack of training and guidelines on how to engage and work effectively with youth and inadequate funding to support such engagement, limiting collaboration between researchers and young people (Das et al, 2020; Sellars et al, 2021).
Such findings have informed efforts by The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health to better engage with young people by including them as research partners. As a first step in April 2021, a call for applications was released for a new Youth Advisory Panel (The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 2021). Following nearly 100 applications from 24 countries, the inaugural Youth Advisory Panel was announced in September 2021, including a total of eight members between 16 and 24 years of age (Morgan, 2021). This globally diverse panel of young males and females encompasses a range of personal and professional experiences including living with chronic illnesses, encountering various barriers to accessing nutrition and health services and volunteering and working within the health sector. The panel will sit within the journal’s newly launched International Advisory Board (Lau et al, 2021) to advise on, and contribute to, the development of the journal’s content, ensuring that this is meaningful to young people from diverse backgrounds.
References
Das, S, Daxenberger, L, Dieudonne, L, Eustace, J, Hanard, A, Krishnamurthi, A, Mishra, P, Njavika, S, Quigley, P, Vergou, A and Wilson, O (2020) An inquiry into involving young people in health research. Wellcome Trust. https://wellcome.org/reports/involving-young-peoplehealth-research
Lau, E, Davis, S and Godsland, J (2021) Our updated International Advisory Board and new Youth Advisory Panel. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 5(9), 611-612. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(21)00242-X
Morgan, J (2021) Our new youth advisory panel. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 5(9), 613-615. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(21)00243-1
Sellars, E, Pavarini, G, Michelson, D, Creswell, C and Fazel, M (2021) Young people’s advisory groups in health research: scoping review and mapping of practices. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 106(7), 698. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2020-320452
The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health (2021, Apr) Expanding our youth engagement-join us! Lancet Child Adolesc Health, 5(4), 233. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-4642(21)00062-6