Using a co-production prioritization exercise involving South Asian children, young people and their families to identify health priorities requiring further research and public awareness.

OBJECTIVES: To facilitate South Asian (SA) families and health-care professionals (HCPs) participation in a prioritization exercise to co-produce child health research and public awareness agendas.

DESIGN: A three-stage process was adopted involving the following: (i) systematic literature review, (ii) HCP scoping survey and (iii) focus groups of SA adolescents and families. A Punjabi- and Urdu-speaking community facilitator moderated focus groups. A British Sign Language interpreter assisted in the hard of hearing group. Concordant and discordant themes between HCPs and SAs were identified.

SETTING: National survey of HCPs. Leicestershire for SA families.

PARTICIPANTS: A total of 27 HCPs and 35 SAs. SAs varied by descent, age (16-74), UK stay length (3-57 years) religion and disability.

RESULTS: Ranked by submission frequency in the survey, HCPs prioritized (i) public awareness on obesity, mental health, health-care access, vitamin D and routine health checks and (ii) research on nutrition, diabetes, health education and parenting methods.

DISCUSSION: South Asians prioritized research into the effectiveness of alternative medicines, a theme not identified by HCPs. Both HCPs and SAs prioritized increased research or public awareness on mental health illness, blood and organ donation, obesity and diet. Whilst HCPs identified diabetes, vitamin D and rickets together with parenting methods were important priorities requiring increased public awareness, and these views were not shared by SAs.

CONCLUSIONS: Minority groups are not always included in priority setting exercises due to concerns about language and perceived difficulty with accessing communities. Through this co-production exercise, we showed that it is possible and essential.