Currently submitted to: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Oct 8, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 8, 2025 - Dec 3, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
NOTE: This is an unreviewed Preprint
Warning: This is a unreviewed preprint (What is a preprint?). Readers are warned that the document has not been peer-reviewed by expert/patient reviewers or an academic editor, may contain misleading claims, and is likely to undergo changes before final publication, if accepted, or may have been rejected/withdrawn (a note "no longer under consideration" will appear above).
Peer review me: Readers with interest and expertise are encouraged to sign up as peer-reviewer, if the paper is within an open peer-review period (in this case, a "Peer Review Me" button to sign up as reviewer is displayed above). All preprints currently open for review are listed here. Outside of the formal open peer-review period we encourage you to tweet about the preprint.
Citation: Please cite this preprint only for review purposes or for grant applications and CVs (if you are the author).
Final version: If our system detects a final peer-reviewed "version of record" (VoR) published in any journal, a link to that VoR will appear below. Readers are then encourage to cite the VoR instead of this preprint.
Settings: If you are the author, you can login and change the preprint display settings, but the preprint URL/DOI is supposed to be stable and citable, so it should not be removed once posted.
Submit: To post your own preprint, simply submit to any JMIR journal, and choose the appropriate settings to expose your submitted version as preprint.
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Youth Engagement for Better Outcomes – Social Networks, Physical Activity and Nutrition (YEBO-SPAN): Protocol for “Future-Proofing” South African Adolescents
ABSTRACT
Background:
Adolescence represents a critical period where health behaviours emerge that track into adulthood. In South Africa, 22.4% of girls and 10.2% of boys aged 10-14 years are overweight or obese, with only 40% meeting physical activity recommendations.
Objective:
This protocol describes an innovative mixed-methods intervention leveraging participatory citizen science and human-centred design to engage South African adolescents in addressing barriers to healthy lifestyle behaviours.
Methods:
The YEBO-SPAN study employs a citizen science "by the people" approach based on the Our Voice global citizen science research method, while also integrating human-centred design principles. Eight high schools in Cape Town were invited to participate in the study, with a focus on Grade 9 learners (14-15 years) who have self-select as Citizen Scientist Explorers (completing self-assessment surveys on lifestyle behaviours and social networks) or Discoverers (engaging in the four-step Our Voice process: Discover, Discuss, Activate, Change). The intervention aligns with the Western Cape Education Department's Life Orientation curriculum. Data collection includes validated instruments for physical activity, dietary patterns, sleep quality, mental wellbeing, and egocentric social network analysis. Citizen scientists used mobile technology for geo-tagged photographic and audio-narrative environmental assessments, followed by participatory workshops to analyse findings, prioritize intervention targets, and develop advocacy strategies. Ripple effects mapping evaluates intended and unintended outcomes.
Results:
The intervention started in August 2024 and will conclude in mid-2026. Published study results are expected in early 2026.
Conclusions:
This protocol represents the first integration of citizen science and human-centred design in South African schools, generating actionable insights into how environments shape adolescent health behaviours. By embedding the multi-modal procedures within existing curriculum structures and emphasizing youth-led advocacy, the study creates pathways for systems-level impact and horizontal scaling. The approach addresses critical gaps in theory-based, co-created interventions for adolescent health in low- and middle-income countries while centering voices of those most affected by health inequities. This framework offers a replicable model for youth-engaged health promotion research globally.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.