Community engagement in the creation of a novel dietary intervention for high school athletes: methods to include teen athletes and coaches in feasible ways

Teen athletes (13–18 years) have elevated nutrient requirements but consistently demonstrate limited knowledge of their dietary needs for sport. This knowledge gap contributes to a high prevalence of dietary behaviours that do not align with current recommendations, increasing an athlete’s risk of injury, impaired growth and hindered performance. To address this gap, we collaborated with teen athletes and coaches who are involved in school sports to co-create a novel dietary intervention designed to be delivered in schools. As existing literature offers limited guidance on how to navigate inherent power dynamics between teen athletes and coaches during co-creation, this paper outlines the methods we used to minimize these dynamics while developing the dietary intervention’s delivery route, content and name, with the aim of informing other co-creation processes. Two independent panels were established: One comprising teen athletes (n = 8) and the other, coaches (n = 7). Panelists were recruited from a single school in Vancouver (Canada), and represented a diversity of sports, ages, and sexes. Each panel met independently on a bi-monthly over 18 months. A single facilitator guided each panel through a simultaneous consensus-building process to inform dietary intervention development. Panelists received an honorarium for their time. Five strategies were used to facilitate dietary intervention development: (1) Alternating which panel met first; (2) Leveraging tasks to panelists lived experiences; (3) Tailoring activities to panelists’ developmental maturity; (4) Outlining decision-making authority; and (5) Keeping identities unknown. These strategies enabled panelists to collaboratively determine the dietary intervention’s delivery route (i.e., an app), name (i.e., PLAYTE), logo and key features (Diet tracking, Recipe library, Sport nutrition videos and Mood, energy and hunger tracking). Future study planning tasks were also completed during the collaborative process. Two independent panels can feasibly be used to co-create a dietary intervention. Future co-creation processes involving groups with innate power dynamics, like teen athletes and coaches, should consider leveraging dual-panel approaches to facilitate transparent decision-making in meaningful ways.