YoPA - A Youth-centred Participatory Action (YoPA)

September 11, 2025 updated by: Mai J M Chin A Paw, PhD, Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc

YoPA - A Youth-centred Participatory Action Approach Towards Co-created Implementation of Socially and Physically Activating Environmental Interventions in Africa and Europe.

Background

A vast majority of adolescents do not meet guidelines for healthy physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep, posing major risks for developing multiple non-communicable diseases. Unhealthy lifestyles seem more prevalent in urban than rural areas, with the neighbourhood environment as a mediating pathway linking urban living and poor health. How to develop and implement sustainable and effective interventions focused on adolescent health and wellbeing in urban vulnerable life situations is a key challenge and research gap. This paper describes the protocol of a Youth-centred Participatory Action (YoPA) project aiming to tailor, implement, and evaluate social and physical environmental interventions using an evidence-informed youth-centred co-creation approach, for structural improvement of the lifestyles of adolescents in urban vulnerable life situations.

Methods

In diverse urban environments in Denmark, the Netherlands, Nigeria, and South Africa, academic researchers will engage adolescents (12-19 years) growing up in vulnerable life situations and other key stakeholders (e.g., policy makers, urban planners, community leaders) in local co-creation communities. Together with academic researchers and local stakeholders, adolescents will take a leading role in mapping the local system for needs and opportunities; tailoring interventions to their local context; implementing and evaluating interventions during participatory meetings over the course of three years. YoPA applies a participatory mixed methods design guided by the newly developed SUPER-AIM framework assessing: (i) the local Systems, (ii) User perspectives, (iii) the Participatory co-creation process, (ii) Effects, iv) Reach, (vi) Adoption, (vii) Implementation, and (viii) Maintenance of interventions, in an integrated manner.

Discussion

YoPA aims to fill various research gaps, including the development of a practical protocol guiding the application of co-creation to tailor evidence-informed interventions to divers, multi-country contexts. Additionally, it focuses on advancing the research gap in physical activity and health within Sub-Saharan Africa and the involvement of adolescents in shaping their physical and social environments. Academic researchers envision that the YoPA co-creation approach will serve as a guide for participation of adolescents in vulnerable life situations in implementation of health promotion and urban planning in Europe, Africa and globally.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

1000

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • aged 12 to 18 years
  • living in a disadvantaged area in Aalborg (Denmark), Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Osogbo (Nigeria), or Soweto (South Africa)
  • active informed consent by the adolescents and at least one parent/caregiver where applicable for the participation of the adolescent

Exclusion Criteria:

  • none

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Adolescents growing up in vulnerable life situations in four diverse urban environments.
Other: Social and/or physical environmental interventions
To be determined in the co-creation groups at the four sites (Denmark, the Netherlands, Nigeria, South Africa)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
24-h movement behaviours (i.e., physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep).
Time Frame: Pre-implementation, directly after implementation, and 3-6 months after implementation of the intervention.

24-h movement behaviours will be assesed by questionnaire and accelerometers.

The questionnaire contains questions on sleep (time spent on sleeping on a school day and weekend day, number of days feeling sleepy in the last week), physical activity (time spent in physical activity) and screentime (watching a screen on weekdays and weekend days).
Pre-implementation, directly after implementation, and 3-6 months after implementation of the intervention.
Physical activity and associated environmental characteristics in selected outdoor spaces
Time Frame: Pre-implementation, directly after implementation, and 3-6 months after implementation of the intervention.
SOPLAY is a validated tool for directly observing physical activity and associated environmental characteristics in free play settings (e.g., recess and lunch at school). SOPLAY provides objective data on the number of participants and their physical activity levels during play and leisure opportunities in targeted areas. Separate scans are made for males and females, and simultaneous entries for contextual characteristics of areas including their accessibility, usability, and whether or not supervision, organized activities, and equipment are provided. The predominant type of activity engaged in by area users is also recorded (e.g., basketball, dance).
Pre-implementation, directly after implementation, and 3-6 months after implementation of the intervention.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Agency
Time Frame: Pre-implementation, directly after implementation, and 3-6 months after implementation of the intervention.
Agency is assessed by two domains scales of the Global Early Adolescent Study (GEAS): voice and freedom of movement, The voice scale conists of seven items. the freedom of movement scale consists of six items. Each item is scored from 0 (never / rarely) to 2 (often), and each domain is scored as the mean of the items scores. Higher domain scores indicate a higher level of voice and freedom of movement.
Pre-implementation, directly after implementation, and 3-6 months after implementation of the intervention.
Wellbeing
Time Frame: Pre-implementation, directly after implementation, and 3-6 months after implementation of the intervention.
Wellbeing is assessed by the PROMIS short form 8b Pediatric Life Satisfaction. This short form Pediatric Life Satisfaction consists of 8 items, which are scored from 1 (never) to 5 (almost always). Total scores are calculated by applying the original U.S. IRT model to the data and estimating the level of functioning of the patient (θ). This level of functioning is transformed into a T-score and is calculated by the formula (θ × 10) + 50, with higher scores representing higher levels of life satisfaction.
Pre-implementation, directly after implementation, and 3-6 months after implementation of the intervention.
Peer relationships
Time Frame: Pre-implementation, directly after implementation, and 3-6 months after implementation of the intervention.
Peer relationships is assessed by the PROMIS short form 8a Pediatric Peer Relationships. The Pediatric Peer Relationships short form consists of 8 items, which are scored from 1 (never) to 5 (almost always). Total scores are calculated by applying the original U.S. IRT model to the data and estimating the level of functioning of the patient (θ). This level of functioning is transformed into a T-score and is calculated by the formula (θ × 10) + 50, with higher scores representing higher levels of peer relationships.
Pre-implementation, directly after implementation, and 3-6 months after implementation of the intervention.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc

Collaborators

Syddansk Universitet, Denmark
Aalborg Municipality
Stichting Alexander (the Netherlands)
University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg (South Africa)
WITS Health Consortium (South Africa)
Redeemer's University (Nigeria)
Value Re-Orientation for Community Enhancement (Nigeria)
Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde, Belgium
COFAC Cooperativa de Formacao e Animacao Cultural CRL (Portugal)
EMMA Communicatie B.V.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Mai JM Chin A Paw, Prof.Dr., Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc
  • Principal Investigator: Teatske M Altenburg, A/Prof.Dr., Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc
  • Principal Investigator: Jasper Schipperijn, Prof.Dr., Syddansk Universitet
  • Principal Investigator: Charlotte S Pawlowski, A/Prof.Dr., Syddansk Universitet
  • Principal Investigator: António L Palmeira, A/Prof.Dr., COFAC Cooperativa de Formacao e Animacao Cultural CRL
  • Principal Investigator: Marlene Nunes Silva, A/Prof.Dr., COFAC Cooperativa de Formacao e Animacao Cultural CRL
  • Principal Investigator: Adewale L Oyeyemi, A/Prof.Dr., Arizona State University
  • Principal Investigator: Bruno Marchal, Prof.Dr., Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde
  • Principal Investigator: Dayo Omotoso, Dr., Redeemer's University
  • Principal Investigator: Lisa Ware, Dr., University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
  • Principal Investigator: Lauren Stuart, Dr., WITS Health Hubb

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

November 1, 2023

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 20, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 22, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

December 26, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

September 17, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 11, 2025

Last Verified

September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HORIZON Europe 101095423
  • 101095423 (Other Grant/Funding Number: EU HORIZON-HLTH-2022-DISEASE-07-03)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

YoPA uses the approach "as open as possible, as restricted as necessary" as the leading principle in providing open access to research data, which includes taking measures to make research data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Starting from July 2024.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Only anonimized data will be shared as well as additional supporting information, like a co-creation protocol, data dictionary code book, topic lists for focus groups and interviews, etc. All results will be integrated in an open access YoPA toolbox targeted at academic researchers, public health practitioners and authorities, policy makers, and citizens.

To request for data, a completed YoPA form "I want to reqest access to the YoPA data" should be submitted. Up to ten days after submission, the proposal will be evaluated by three members of the YoPA consortium.

Please check for more information the YoPA website: https://www.yopa-project.eu/

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP
  • ICF
  • ANALYTIC_CODE
  • CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Physical Activity

Clinical Trials on Social and/or physical environmental interventions

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Switzerland

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Subscribe