BACKGROUND: Co-design, a participatory approach that actively involves end-users in designing products and services, fosters empowerment and enhances relevance. Despite the significance of youth-focused interventions in tobacco control, young people in Africa and Nigeria have limited involvement in the design of health communication campaigns and materials. The lack of active youth participation and the scarcity of qualitatively informed interventions necessitate innovative approaches to campaign design.
METHODS: This study employed a four-phase participatory co-design framework to qualitatively engage young people aged 13–19 years from two senior secondary schools in a tobacco-smoking-dense locality in southern Nigeria. Eight workshops and group discussions were conducted with 89 participants. Drawing tasks were primarily utilized to enable participants to visually and textually articulate tobacco control campaign ideas using problem trees, idea clouds, and road maps. Thematic analysis of the drawings and discussions generated key campaign themes.
RESULTS: Three central campaign themes emerged: “Seeing Is Believing,” “Just Try It: Shades of Influence,” and “Positioning Authority Figures: Dimensions of Power.” These themes informed the development of culturally relevant health communication materials (a song, twelve posters) including an animation that integrated concepts from the identified themes. The participatory and creative methods enabled the co-design of materials that combined evidence-based messaging with local narratives.
CONCLUSIONS: This study deviates from the traditional approach used to generate campaign themes by incorporating participatory and creative methods. It illustrates the transformative potential of co-design in crafting impactful, youth-centered health communication campaigns. By adopting a co-design approach, the research produced context-sensitive materials tailored to the local environment. These findings offer valuable insights for implementing co-design methodologies in youth-focused interventions, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.