Global Health Otherwise shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Youth Advisory Boards Give Young People a Voice in Shaping Research – Yet Millions Remain Excluded
Young and colleagues (2026) present a scoping review examining 61 studies published between 2020 and 2025, mapping 48 unique youth advisory boards across health, social work, and social science research.
The review builds on established participation frameworks, noting that meaningful engagement requires shared decision-making, not just information sharing. Most boards operate in high-income countries and recruit through existing networks, which limits who gets included.
The authors find that only three boards ever included youth with disabilities, despite disability affecting roughly sixteen percent of the global population. Boards also engage youth more often in data collection than in decision-making or authoring outcomes.
Young and colleagues argue that organizations must diversify recruitment strategies and treat disability inclusion as mandatory rather than aspirational. They recommend institution-wide models, similar to the University of Technology Sydney’s own advisory panel, to ensure research reflects the full range of youth experience.
This scoping review finds that youth advisory boards rarely include youth with disabilities, calling for intentional, mandatory inclusion so that research on issues affecting all youth truly represents everyone equally.”
Title: Youth advisory boards: a scoping review of characteristics, youth engagement activities and role in inclusive research
Authors: Kirsty Young and Teena Clerke.
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