Engaging adolescents in developing health education interventions: a multidisciplinary pilot project

Abstract

Adolescents engagement is fundamental to develop dedicated educational interventions. We piloted non-standard sociological methodology to assess risk perception, information sources and perceived educational needs of a group of Italian adolescents focusing on three infectious diseases. Three high-school classes students participated in a World Café event. A thematic analysis was performed. Participants showed lack of knowledge on diseases prevention. Family and school were key health information sources and social media considered unreliable. Future interventions preferences included interactive and informal sessions. We showed the utility of non-standard sociological methods to assess health knowledge among adolescents and enhance the design of dedicated interventions.

A critical look to community wisdom: Applying the World Café method to health promotion and prevention

“…Finally, only 28% of the studies reported the organisation of one or more World Cafés, as the only method used (Table 2). As regards the macro‐area covered by the studies, about half of the studies were centred on health promotion (12 studies) 15,18–22,25,27,28,32,34,35 and the other half on disease prevention (11 studies) 7–9,16,17,23,24,26,29,30,33 . Only two studies addressed health promotion and prevention issues together 14,31 .…”

“…In particular, those studies have been realised in Australia (5), 7,8,[14][15][16] United Kingdom (5), [17][18][19][20][21] United States (4), [22][23][24][25] Canada (3), [26][27][28] Ireland (3), [29][30][31] and South Africa (1). 32 Only four studies were carried out in non-Anglo-Saxon countries, such as Italy (1), 33 Netherlands (1), 9 Portugal (1), 34 and Germany (1). 35 A plurality of main objectives has been pursued by the included studies.…”

“…As regards the macro-area covered by the studies, about half of the studies were centred on health promotion (12 studies) 15,[18][19][20][21][22]25,27,28,32,34,35 and the other half on disease prevention (11 studies). [7][8][9]16,17,23,24,26,29,30,33 Only two studies addressed health promotion and prevention issues together.…”

“…The achieved findings mostly regard the exploration of emergent or main themes or topics 9,15,25,27,[31][32][33] ; the collection of best practices or suggestions for improvements or recommendations 7,8,14,16,18,26,35 ; the definition of priorities for implementation projects or research agendas. 20,21,23,28,29 More rarely, findings include the definition of strategic indicators or measures 22,34 ; the design of research proposals 19 ; the identification of educational needs by healthcare operators 30 ; the discussion of an emergent model.…”

“…The most relevant strengths regarding the participants in the World Café can be summarised as follows: all the participants are stakeholders who provide their in-depth and full perspective and are viewed as experts 9,20,29,33 ; they usually include community members and decision makers 8,22,32 ; participants often have a wide range of experiences and knowledge. 15,24,28,29 The most relevant weaknesses regarding the participants of the World Café are due to the qualitative nature of the method.…”