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Co-designing Digital Sleep Interventions for Adolescents: A Scoping Review of Methods, Frameworks, and Stakeholder Roles
ABSTRACT
Background:
Adolescent sleep problems are highly prevalent and closely associated with physical and mental health outcomes. Digital interventions offer scalable and personalized solutions; however, their effectiveness depends on alignment with user needs. Co-design approaches are increasingly used to enhance relevance and engagement, yet their application in adolescent sleep interventions has not been systematically mapped.
Objective:
To examine the methods, frameworks, and stakeholder involvement in co-designing digital interventions for adolescent sleep.
Methods:
This scoping review followed PRISMA extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Five databases (PsycINFO, Embase, MEDLINE, PubMed, and CINAHL) were searched for studies published between June 2007 and 03 September 2026. Eligible studies included adolescents aged 10–24 years and reported a co-design process in developing digital interventions targeting sleep or related outcomes. Independent reviewers screened and extracted data, followed by quality appraisal (MMAT).
Results:
Of the twenty-four included studies, most (79%) were published since 2022 and conducted in high-income countries. Study designs were primarily qualitative (42%). Most interventions were delivered through mHealth modalities (63%), followed by eHealth modalities (29%). A range of co-design frameworks was used, most commonly participatory design and co-creation processes (50%), participatory action research (13%), and experience-based co-design (13%). The most frequently reported co-design methods were iterative prototyping (42%), focus groups (38%), interviews (38%), surveys (38%), workshops (33%), and pilot evaluation or user experience testing (33%). Adolescents were involved in all studies, contributing to needs identification, content development, and usability testing. Other stakeholders included parents (38%), researchers (30%), teachers (25%), clinicians (17%), and designers/researchers (8%). Only four studies progressed beyond intervention development to implementation and evaluation. Overall, co-design processes were categorized by iterative stages from needs assessment to refinement.
Conclusions:
Co-design is increasingly applied in adolescent digital sleep interventions, with strong end-user involvement. However, only a few interventions progressed to implementation and efficacy testing. Furthermore, variability in frameworks and stakeholder inclusion highlights the need for a more structured, transparent, and inclusive approach. Clinical Trial: It was registered with the Open Science Framework (OSF) on September 29th 2026 (https://osf.io/nz4fk/).
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