Conference Agenda

Background: Social influences are key drivers of youth smoking in Nigeria, yet health communication campaigns rarely visualize these dynamics from the perspcetive of young people. This study used a co-design approach to engage young people in identifying and illustrating the root causes of smoking in their community.

Methods: Eighty-nine students from two senior secondary schools in southern Nigeria participated in a series of co-design workshops. Seven mixed-department groups (sciences, social sciences, arts) used problem-tree mapping to identify smoking-related root causes. Thematic analysis was conducted on their visual and written outputs.

Results: Participants consistently identified peer influence as a major driver of smoking initiation, describing it as a gradual process beginning with casual invitations (“just try it”) and progressing to habitual smoking (addiction). Family members were also seen as both risk and protective factors. While mothers were described as strong deterrents; fathers, uncles, and older brothers were often cited as modeling smoking behaviour. Although negative influence was usually ascribed to male relatives, they were also the reason why some participants witnessed the serious health consequences of smoking and believed smoking to be dangerous, thereby serving as a deterrent.

Conclusion: Co-design empowered participants to articulate complex social influences on smoking and translate them into an engaging animation for tobacco use prevention. This participatory, visual approach may strengthen youth-focused health communication campaigns in African contexts and improve their cultural relevance. The co-designed animation will be showcased during the conference presentation.

Within large research collaborations especially in health domain, International Working Groups (IWGs) serve as platforms facilitating joint expert work on specific topic areas. Using the Network of Practice (NoP) lens, this study investigates how geographically and culturally diverse members from different background contexts and competence levels navigate participation in a loosely structured, informal group based on voluntary participation. Specifically, the study explores how members of one International Working Group in a global health research network understand their group as a mechanism for collaboration, knowledge sharing, learning and improving the shared practice, and their role and participation in it. The empirical material consists of semi-structured online interviews (n≥20) with members of one IWG focusing on one specific aspect of the shared research practice of the network. Interview data will be complemented with supporting material such as documents produced within the IWG as well as observation of the IWG meetings held online. Data will be analysed qualitatively using the Gioia methodology. The study reveals how members construct meaning around their roles, responsibilities, and contributions within the group. It also uncovers the activities (e.g., meetings, joint production of scientific articles) and tools (e.g., surveys, online platforms) that the group coordinators apply to facilitate synchronous, but also asynchronous scientific collaboration across time zones worldwide. This research advances understanding of how distributed scientists-practitioners co-create shared practice through International Working Groups dedicated to specific topic areas.

Background: Integrating the Living with Long Term Conditions (LwLTCs) scale into routine primary care is challenging, especially for under-served populations facing health inequalities. This study addresses these issues within "challenging times" in healthcare, focusing on fostering "relational connections and collaborative practices" to enhance patient care.

Aims & Objectives: Our project aims to identify enablers and barriers for introducing and operationalising the LwLTCs scale in primary care, particularly for under-served groups. Objectives include exploring patient and healthcare professional (HCP) perspectives and collaborating with implementation champions to facilitate scale adoption and integration.

Methodology: Utilising a qualitative design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 LTCs patients (purposively sampled across ethnicity, socio-economic status, remote living) and 15 LTCs-related HCPs (purposively sampled by working area/professional background). Recruitment was from two diverse primary care practices within Hampshire, England (urban/semi-rural) via professional networks and social media. Data collection is complete, and thematic analysis is underway, with Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) validation and dissemination. By the time of the conference, preliminary findings from this analysis will be available for sharing and discussion.

Contribution: This research directly informs collaborative practices by identifying practical strategies for implementing the LwLTCs scale. By highlighting diverse patient and HCP perspectives and local factors, it strengthens relational connections within healthcare. Findings will support a responsive implementation plan, address health inequalities, and foster effective primary care models relevant to global flows of complex health needs.

Research focusing on attitudes has long been at the core of social psychology. Studies have typically defined attitudes as relatively stable internal dispositions that guide behaviour. This study, however, takes a different approach to attitudes towards alcohol screening and counselling. Rather than viewing attitudes as internal dispositions, this study considers them to be argumentative and socially embedded phenomena – that is, attitudes which are constructed and can be recognised in social interaction. The study provides a qualitative analysis of how alcohol-related problems are constructed within the context of social work. A qualitative attitude approach (QAA) is employed to explore the construction of attitudes in argumentative talk. Specifically, it explores how social workers (n = 14) and their clients (n = 14) constructed alcohol-related problems as attitude objects. Both groups mainly constructed alcohol-related problems as social issues. The interviewees associated this social issue closely with social statuses, as well as with clients' fulfilment of their responsibilities and their ability to function well. The alcohol-related problem was attributed not only to the individual, but also to the people around them. While the medicalised view of alcohol-related problems, which highlights the negative impact they can have on people’s health and well-being, was present in the argumentative talk, it was less common than the social view. The interviewees saw identifying and managing alcohol-related problems as an essential part of a social worker's job. This social view may contrast with individualistic models of substance abuse treatment. The results demonstrate that a qualitative approach to attitudes is required to understand different constructions of attitude objects.

Supervised Consumption Sites (SCS) operate within the framework of harm reduction practices, providing individuals who use psychoactive substances with a safe and controlled environment to engage in such use.To date, there is a paucity of research emanating from Greece on heroin users’ experiences in the SCS context. The goal of this study is to provide a platform for the voice of users of psychoactive substances, specifically heroin and to update harm reduction policies and the relevant services, so that they are able to respond to the needs of the population in the best possible way. This thesis aims to explore the lived experience of heroin use within the SCS. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals who used the SCS for heroin use. The method of analysis employed is Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), which allows for the study of participants' interpretations of their experiences while simultaneously acknowledging the inevitable influence of the researcher's interpretations. The findings that emerged are captured through the following sections: a) The “structure” of survival, b) On the threshold: between marginalization and acceptance, c) Building alternative relationships: support and obstacles, d) Cracks towards the light: the possibility of moral reconstruction and rehabilitation. The SCS emerged as a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional space, an important function of which seemed to be the coverage of heroin users’ basic needs. Participants seemed to give it meaning as a space between the “inside” and the “outside”, with their experience within it being largely determined by the social relations that develop in its context. The SCS emerged as a potential station between heroin use and rehabilitation, emphasizing the importance of its integration into a network of therapeutic options and services in order to be a hub of support for people who use heroin.