It's elementary Watson: public engagement activities as a first step to empowering young public involvement in health care research

Session: 

Oral session: Patient or healthcare consumers involvement and shared decision-making (2)

Date: 

Sunday 16 September 2018 - 14:40 to 15:00

Location: 

Carrick 1

All authors in correct order:

Robertson C1, Goulao B1, Aceves-Martins M1, Gardner H1, on behalf of the HSRU Public Engagement Group .1
1 Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom
Presenting author and contact person

Presenting author:

Clare Robertson

Contact person:

Clare Robertson
Abstract text
Background:
While public involvement in health care research is recognised as being important for ensuring the work we conduct is appropriate and relevant for the wider society, it can be challenging to attract members of the public to become involved in research projects, especially young people. Public engagement can be an important first step to increasing public knowledge and can empower individuals to become involved in research.

Objectives:
We describe our experience of conducting a public engagement activity around evidence synthesis.

Methods:
We designed an activity that mapped onto the stages of conducting a systematic review: defining a research question, finding relevant data, assessing its quality and combining it to find an answer. The activity was delivered at a local science festival (TechFest) and two primary schools. The activity also used a recognisable character, Sherlock Holmes, to encourage the children to think critically about information presented in the format of clues in a treasure hunt. All participants were asked to complete an evaluation questionnaire using age-appropriate 'smiley face' response options.

Results:
We engaged 199 children. Their ages varied from 3 to 14 years old, with an average age of 8 years. 91% said they enjoyed the activity a lot and 90% found the activity either "easy" or "OK". At TechFest, children came with their families, providing a good opportunity to engage their parents and other adult relatives with our research and evidence synthesis in general. At the end of the activity, children were able to think critically about the quality of research and recognise the importance of evidence synthesis to acquired knowledge.

Conclusions:
We believe that our activity will empower young audiences to seek out and be more critical about different sources of information, including evidence syntheses. This provides a first step in starting a dialogue between the audience and researcher that can ultimately lead to more and better citizen participation in research. Furthermore, we believe that the lasting impact of our activity will be through better-informed children, and adults via their children, who are more likely to become actively involved in research in the future.

Relevance to patients and consumers: 

We delivered a public engagement activity with the aim of educating children, and adult relatives via children, about the role of evidence synthesis in health care research. The activity mapped onto the stages of conducting a systematic review and provided the opportunity to disseminate our research and evidence synthesis in general. We believe that our activity, and similar engagement activities, create a better-informed public and empowers young individuals to become more critical of and more involved in setting the research agenda in health care.