Citizen Science to improve healthy and active living among adolescents in four European countries: a protocol of the cluster randomised controlled trial of the Science Engagement to Empower aDolescentS (SEEDS) project
Lucia Tarro,
Elisabet Llauradó,
Rosa Solà,
Dimitris Vlachopoulos,
Yannis Manios,
Famke JM Mölenberg,
Craig A Williams,
Wilma Jansen,
Annemieke Wargers,
Judit Queral,
Christopher M Elphick,
Electra Kalogerakou,
Alexandros Karagiannis,
Christina Mavrogianni,
Claire Murray
Affiliations
Lucia Tarro
2 Health and Nutrition, Eurecat, Centre Tecnològic de Catalunya, Unitat de Nutrició i Salut, Avinguda Universitat 1, Reus, Catalonia, Spain
Elisabet Llauradó
1 Medicine and Surgery and Basical Medical Sciences, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Functional Nutrition, Oxidation, and Cardiovascular Diseases Group (NFOC-Salut), Health Education and Promotion, C/ Sant Llorenç, 21, Reus (43201), Spain, Reus, Spain
Rosa Solà
1 Medicine and Surgery and Basical Medical Sciences, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Functional Nutrition, Oxidation, and Cardiovascular Diseases Group (NFOC-Salut), Health Education and Promotion, C/ Sant Llorenç, 21, Reus (43201), Spain, Reus, Spain
Dimitris Vlachopoulos
Public Health and Sports Sciences department, University of Exeter, Children`s Health and Exercise Research Centre, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, UK
Yannis Manios
Institute of Agri-food and Life Sciences, Hellenic Mediterranean University Research Centre, Heraklion, Greece
Famke JM Mölenberg
Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Craig A Williams
3 Children’s Health and Exercise Research Centre, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
Wilma Jansen
Department of Social Development, City of Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Annemieke Wargers
Department of Public Health, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Judit Queral
Metabolic diseases and nutrition, Institut d`Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili, Reus, Spain
Christopher M Elphick
Public Health and Sports Sciences department, University of Exeter, Children`s Health and Exercise Research Centre, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, UK
Electra Kalogerakou
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health Science and Education, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece
Alexandros Karagiannis
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health Science and Education, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece
Christina Mavrogianni
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health Science and Education, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece
Claire Murray
European Citizen Science Assocation, c/o Museum für Naturkunde Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Berlin, Germany
Introduction Improving healthy lifestyles of adolescents is challenging. Citizen Science is a way to engage them in the design and delivery of interventions, and may also increase their interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The Science Engagement to Empower aDolescentS (SEEDS) project aims to use an equity-lens, and engage and empower boys and girls from deprived areas by designing and cocreating interventions to promote healthy lifestyles, and to seed interest in STEM.Methods and analysis SEEDS is a cluster randomised controlled trial in four countries (Greece, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK). Each country will recruit six to eight high schools from lower socioeconomic neighbourhoods. Adolescents aged 13–15 years are the target population. High schools will be randomised into intervention or control group. Each country will select 15 adolescents from intervention schools called ambassadors, who will be involved throughout the project.In each country, focus groups with ambassadors and stakeholders will focus on physical activity, snacking behaviour and STEM. The input from focus groups will be used to shape Makeathon events, cocreation events where adolescents and stakeholders will develop the interventions. The resultant intervention will be implemented in the intervention schools during 6 months. In total, we aim to recruit 720 adolescents who will complete questionnaires related to healthy lifestyles and STEM outcomes at baseline (November 2021) and after the 6 months (June 2022).Ethics and dissemination The four countries obtained approval from their corresponding Ethics Committees (Greece: Bioethics Committee of Harokopio University; the Netherlands: The Medical Research Ethics Committee of the Erasmus Medical Center; Spain: The Drug Research Ethics Committee of the Pere Virgili Health Research Institute; UK: Sport and Health Sciences Ethics Committee of the University of Exeter). Informed consent will be collected from adolescents and their parents in line with General Data Protection Regulation legislation. The findings will be disseminated by conference presentations, publications in scientific peer-reviewed journals and during (local) stakeholders and public events. Lessons learnt and the main results will also be used to provide policy recommendations.Trial registration number NCT05002049.