Developing a data repository to support interdisciplinary research into childhood stunting: a UKRI GCRF Action Against Stunting Hub protocol paper.

INTRODUCTION: As a topic of inquiry in its own right, data management for interdisciplinary research projects is in its infancy. Key issues include the inability of researchers to effectively query diverse data outputs and to identify potentially important synergies between discipline-specific data. Equally problematic, few semantic ontologies exist to better support data organisation and discovery. Finally, while interdisciplinary research is widely regarded as beneficial to unpacking complex problems, non-researchers such as policy-makers and planners often struggle to use and interrogate the related datasets. To address these issues, the following article details the design and development of the UKRI GCRF Action Against Stunting Hub (AASH)'s All-Hub Data Repository (AHDR). METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The AHDR is a single application, single authentication web-based platform comprising a data warehouse to store data from across the AASH's three study countries and to support data querying. Four novel components of the AHDR are described in the following article: (1) a unique data discovery tool; (2) a metadata catalogue that provides researchers with an interface to explore the AASH's data outputs and engage with a new semantic ontology related to child stunting; (3) an interdisciplinary aid to support a directed approach to identifying synergies and interactions between AASH data and (4) a decision support tool that will support non-researchers in engaging with the wider evidence-based outputs of the AASH. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval for this study was granted by institutional ethics committees in the UK, India, Indonesia and Senegal. Results will be disseminated via publications in peer-reviewed journals; presentations at international conferences and community-level public engagement events; key stakeholder meetings; and in public repositories with appropriate Creative Commons licences allowing for the widest possible use.

Associations between social media, adolescent mental health, and diet: A systematic review.

Social media use is integral to many adolescents' lives. It brings benefits but can also have detrimental effects on both physical and mental health. We conducted a systematic review examining associations between social media use, adolescent mental health (including body image, self-esteem, stress, interpersonal relationships and loneliness, anxiety, and depressive symptoms), and dietary outcomes. Quantitative studies published between 2019 and 2023 investigating both mental health and diet were searched in 11 databases. The risk of bias was appraised using ROBINS-E. Data were narratively synthesized by type of association, PROGRESS-Plus health equity characteristics, and related to social media influencers. Twenty-one studies were included, of which only one focused on influencers. Sex/gender was the only equity characteristic assessed (n = 8), with mixed results. The findings suggest significant positive correlations between social media use and both depressive and disordered eating symptoms, body dissatisfaction, and anxiety. Four studies identified body image, self-esteem, or anxiety as moderators acting between social media exposure and dietary outcomes. Policy interventions mitigating the impact of social media on adolescents-particularly body image and disordered eating-are needed, alongside follow-up studies on causal pathways, the role of influencers, equity impacts, dietary intake, and the best measurement tools to use.

Learning from the CO-CREATE project: A protocol for systems thinking across research (STAR).

The CO-CREATE project aimed to work with young people to create, inform, and disseminate obesity-preventive evidence-based policies using a complex systems perspective. This paper draws lessons from this experience and proposes a protocol for embedding systems thinking within a research project. We first draw on existing systems thinking frameworks to analyze how systems thinking was translated across CO-CREATE, including the flow and relationship between the work packages and in the methods used. We then take the lessons from CO-CREATE and the principles of existing systems thinking frameworks-which focus on various points of intervention planning and delivery but not on research projects as a whole-to formulate a protocol for embedding systems thinking across a research project. Key lessons for future planning and delivery of systems-oriented research projects include incorporating "boundary critique" by capturing key stakeholder (adolescent) values and concerns; working to avoid social exclusion; ensuring methodological pluralism to allow for reflection and responsiveness (with methods ranging from group model building, Photovoice, and small group engagement); getting policy recipients to shape key questions by understanding their views on the critical drivers of obesity early on in the project; and providing opportunity for intraproject reflection along the way.

Co-creating obesity prevention policies with youth: Policy ideas generated through the CO-CREATE project.

Despite growing recognition of the importance of applying a systems lens to action on obesity, there has only been limited analysis of the extent to which this lens has actually been applied. The CO-CREATE project used a youth-led participatory action research approach to generate policy ideas towards the reduction of adolescent overweight and obesity across Europe. In order to assess the extent to which these youth-generated policy ideas take a systems approach, we analyzed them using the Intervention Level Framework (ILF). The ILF ascribes actions to one of five system levels, from Structural Elements, the least engaged with system change, up to Paradigm, which is the system's deepest held beliefs and thus the most difficult level at which to intervene. Of the 106 policy ideas generated by young people during the CO-CREATE project, 91 (86%) were categorized at the level of Structural Elements. This emphasis on operational rather than systems level responses echoes findings from a previous study on obesity strategies. Analyzing the distribution of systems level responses using the ILF has the potential to support more effective action on obesity by allowing identification of opportunities to strengthen systems level responses overall.