From Consultation to Leadership: Advancing Youth-led Innovation in Digital Public Health

The field of digital public health is rapidly evolving as technology plays an increasingly influential role in shaping health behaviors, interventions, and communication, particularly among adolescents and young adults (AYAs, ages 10-25). As this demographic is among the most active users of digital platforms globally, they interact with health-related information in ways that profoundly impact their well-being. However, despite the proliferation of digital health tools and interventions targeting AYAs, there remains a disconnect with their lived experiences. Current approaches to AYA engagement are often superficial or tokenistic. This has led to persistent challenges with trust, relevance, accessibility, and, ultimately, the effectiveness of digital public health efforts—potentially reinforcing existing health inequities.Recent studies highlight both the promise and pitfalls of youth engagement in digital public health. While some innovative programs demonstrate that youth-driven design can foster engagement and improve outcomes, the literature also documents ongoing challenges, such as exclusion of marginalized voices, ethical concerns, and insufficient integration of youth perspectives throughout the design and implementation process. These limitations are rooted, in part, in persistent hierarchical conceptualisations of engagement, where adults retain decision-making authority and young people are positioned along a spectrum of participation with limited influence. Such models can inadvertently reinforce power imbalances constraining the potential for genuine youth leadership and innovation. There is also a growing debate over what “meaningful” engagement entails and how to balance innovation, ethical considerations, and equity in emergent digital contexts, such as applications of artificial intelligence in public health.This Research Topic aims to advance the understanding of what constitutes meaningful engagement of AYAs in digital public health. This includes how AYA leadership can be systematically integrated across the entire lifecycle of digital public health initiatives. Further, it seeks to clarify what tangible outcomes such engagement should facilitate for individual and community health, well-being, and equity. We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:● Frameworks and best practices for meaningful AYA engagement in digital environments● Operationalizing AYA partnership and/or leadership across design, governance,implementation, and evaluation of digital public health initiatives● Evaluations of the effectiveness and equity impacts of AYA-led digital interventions indiverse settings● Ethical and legal considerations in AYA digital health engagement● The role of lived experience and marginalized voices in shaping digital public health● Case studies of co-created, especially AYA-led, digital public health initiatives● Applications to diverse health domains (e.g., mental health, chronic disease, substanceuse, vaccination)● Perspectives on AYA digital platform governance and safety mechanismsThis Research Topic is coordinated by members of the Digital Health & AI Special Interest Group (SIG) of Youth4Health, the youth network of the WHO Regional Office for Europe.We acknowledge the initiation and support of this Research Topic by University College London’s RDR Centre of Digital Public Health in Emergencies (dPHE). We hereby state publicly that UCL’s RDR Centre of dPHE has had no editorial input in articles included in this Research Topic, thus ensuring that all aspects of this Research Topic are evaluated objectively, and unbiased by any specific policy or opinion of UCL’s RDR Centre of dPHE. Topic editors: Kathleen W Guan, Azza Warraitch, Caroline Figueroa Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78501/from-consultation-to-leadership-advancing-youth-led-innovation-in-digital-public-health