Purpose: Participant engagement research provides a deeper understanding of participation in research and potentially ‘hidden’ barriers or benefits which can inform adjustments to research to be more participant friendly. This type of qualitative data can help researchers develop an understanding of whether, how and why the research was successful and/or meaningful for both researchers and participants, with the potential to improve retention of cohorts as well as inform the interpretation of results. The aim of this presentation is to review the various participant engagement research strategies employed in a longitudinal adolescent cohort in a low-income setting.

Methods: The participatory engagement research is part of the Behaviour, Executive function in Adolescents with Conduct Disorder (BEACON) study. This is a repeated measures longitudinal cohort study of parents and their adolescents aged 11 who will be followed up at age 13 years. The study established an adolescent and parent advisory group consisting of 24 members. The advisory group participated in focus group discussions, photovoice and community walks exploring the following: perspectives on study procedures, participant recruitment and measures and the piloting of novel methodologies and objective assessments.

Results: The qualitative research provided feedback on the lived experience of adolescence and parents in Soweto and allowed them to articulate their views on scientific research priorities. Having the research done in a low-income setting, participant retention strategies included the provision of incentives, transport, meals and frequent telephonic contact with study participants. The participants also played a role in co-creating the data collection methods such as clarifying and validating measures as well as the creation of an online recruitment system.

Conclusion: The strategies proposed in this study has the potential to increased impact through participatory co-design of rigorous, accessible, engaging data collection and dissemination activities that met the needs of researchers, while maintaining respect for the dignity, preferences and experiences of adolescents themselves and their parents.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe participation and drop-out rates in a school-based physical activity study during two-years follow-up, and to discuss methods to improve the representativeness of the study population and prevention drop out.

Methods: The pupils for this two-year follow-up study were recruited from nine schools throughout Finland. A total of 1,710 pupils from grades 4 to 7 (mean age 12.6 ± 1.3 y at baseline) were invited to participate, and 970 (56.7%) gave their permission to participate.  Pupils’ physical activity was measured five times (M1-M5) using a hip-worn accelerometer for seven consecutive days. Pupils also reported their physical activity by a questionnaire. Written consent was obtained from both the pupils and their guardians.

Results: The participation rate at baseline was inversely associated with age being 78%, 63%, 55% and 49% for the pupils at grades 4, 5, 6 and 7 respectively. The number of pupils who responded to the self-report questionnaire during school class was 949 at baseline (M1) and 798 at the fifth measurement (M5).  The number of participants who had valid accelerometer data on at least two weekdays and one weekend day (2+1) was 771 at baseline and 328 at M5, and the number of those who had valid data for all seven days was 328 at baseline and 134 at M5. The pupils who remained in accelerometer measurements (2+1 days, M5 versus M1) were more likely girls (12%), younger (by 0.24 years), had higher body mass index (by 0.6 kg/m2), and participated less in moderate to vigorous physical activity during leisure time (by 4.7 min/day) than the pupils who dropped out.

Conclusions: Retention of adolescents in school-based longitudinal studies is a challenge. Adherence to self-reported physical activity measurement was much higher compared to accelerometer-based measurements. The practical means how to improve representativeness of the study population and to prevent drop-out from the physical activity monitoring will be discussed. Based on our experience, motivation is needed at all levels, including school principals, teachers, pupils and their guardians.

Purpose: To share the challenges, successes, and learnings arising from engaging a cohort which was established at the age of 11/12 (N=6900) as they progress into late adolescence and young adulthood. 

Methods:Although parent and teacher engagement were the vital factor for initially establishing and maintaining the cohort, when the SCAMP participants reached sixth form, we required their personal consent and therefore engagement and interest. This coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning our engagement methods had to be even more innovative and adaptive. In this presentation we will share the strategies which were used and what we learnt from their varying levels of efficacy.    

Results: Establishing a representative Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG) of SCAMP participants and meeting monthly to garner their opinions on our research strategies offered really important insights for older adolescent engagement, such as the importance of communicating the purpose of the research and, where possible, current findings. As most of the cohort are about to leave school, we are now developing an App with the YPAG, who are directing us as to what would encourage them to download the App and to keep it on their phones.  

Further, we set up a student Ambassador program, where a student from each SCAMP school acted as ‘the face of SCAMP’; communicating with students, keeping them interested, and sharing our findings and research tasks. We found that having an ambassador in a school when we disseminated a survey doubled response rates on average, so having that peer-to-peer communication was a really valuable investment of time and resource.  

Conclusions: We will share and explore the strategies which were most and least successful and what we learnt from young people about working with this age group. This knowledge can be applied to any research involving older adolescents and can advance recruitment and engagement methods to be more successful, efficient, representative, and beneficial for participants.