The study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme (14/182/14). The intervention costs were funded by the Edinburgh & Lothians Health Foundation (861) and the Scottish Government (14/182/14). We are grateful to all three funders for giving us the opportunity to develop and evaluate the STASH study. We would like to thank the Population Health Research Facility at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, for their professional and dedicated approach to questionnaire data collection. We would also like to thank our TSC (Professor James Hargreaves, Professor Simon Forrest, Dr David Gillespie and Ms Alice Hoyle) for their constructive feedback and support throughout. We are grateful to our collaborators, Sally Good (Evidence to Impact Ltd), and Lesley Walker and Yvonne Kerr (NHS Lothian) for their support of the project. We would like to thank our colleagues Laura Sharp, Elaine MacLennan and Chris Read at Fast Forward, and Lesley Brogan and Brian Pringle at the West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Service, for helping us design content and bringing the STASH project to life. Thanks also to Richard Tibbitts and Boaz Yehezkel from Antbits for developing the STASH study website.
Thanks to our colleagues Susan Patterson, Rachel Wilson-Lowe, Julie Riddell and Kaye Ross at the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit for their input to the project, and Maija Hirvonen for her analysis of the social media component.
We are indebted to all the young people and professionals who gave their time and expertise at our stakeholder consultations and events. We thank all the students in the study schools who gave their time to participate in the evaluation. Finally, we thank the PSs, their contact teachers and senior management teams, for their enthusiasm and commitment throughout.
KRM, LM, LMcD, CP, CB, MMcC, RF and SAS are supported by the UK’s MRC and the Scottish Government CSO at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow (MC_UU_12017/11, SPHSU11, MC_UU_12017/14 and SPHSU14). SAS and MMcC are also supported by a MRC Strategic Award (MC-PC-13027).
Contributions of authors
Kirstin R Mitchell (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4409-6601) (Professor of Social Science and Public Health) was a co-principal investigator and designed the intervention and study, directed the research project, led the drafting and editing of the report, contributed to the writing of the report and undertook some of the qualitative data collection.
Carrie Purcell (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2651-9201) (Research Fellow) led on the qualitative data collection and analysis, contributed to the design of the intervention and study, and contributed substantially to the writing of the report.
Ross Forsyth (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0414-5640) (Project Manager) managed the study, led the quantitative data collection, contributed to the design of the intervention and study, and contributed to the writing of the report.
Sarah Barry (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3039-8729) (Chancellor’s Fellow) planned and led the statistical analysis and interpretation, contributed to the study design, and contributed to the writing and editing of the report.
Rachael Hunter (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7447-8934) (Associate Professor, Health Economics) led on the design analysis and interpretation of the health economics component, and contributed to the writing and editing of the report.
Sharon A Simpson (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6219-1768) (Professor of Behavioural Sciences and Health) contributed to the development of the study, provided expertise in behaviour change, and contributed to the writing and editing of the report.
Lisa McDaid (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7711-8723) (Professor of Social Sciences and Health) contributed to the development of the study, provided expertise in sexual health, provided expertise in co-production, and contributed to the writing and editing of the report.
Lawrie Elliot (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7727-231X) (Professor of Social Sciences and Health) contributed to the development of the study, provided expertise in sexual health, and contributed to the writing and editing of the report.
Mark McCann (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6100-1416) (Research Fellow) designed, analysed and interpreted the social network component, and contributed to the writing and editing of the report.
Kirsty Wetherall (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0547-3184) (Trainee Biostatistician) undertook data analysis, and contributed to the writing and editing of the report.
Chiara Broccatelli (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1289-174X) (Research Assistant) analysed and interpreted the social network component, and contributed to the writing and editing of the report.
Julia V Bailey (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5001-0122) (Associate Professor in Primary Care) contributed to the development of the study, provided expertise in sexual health, provided expertise in social media, and contributed to the writing and editing of the report.
Laurence Moore (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2182-823X) (Director of the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit) was a co-principal investigator and designed the intervention and study, provided mentorship and support for research project, supported the drafting and editing of the report, and contributed to the writing of the report.
Publications
Forsyth R, Purcell C, Barry S, Simpson S, Hunter R, McDaid L, et al. Peer-led intervention to prevent and reduce STI transmission and improve sexual health in secondary schools (STASH): protocol for a feasibility study. Pilot Feasibility Stud 2018;4.
Hirvonen MK, Purcell P, Elliott L, Bailey JV, Simpson SA, McDaid L, et al. Peer-to-peer sharing of sexual health social media messages in a school-based intervention: opportunities and challenges identified in the STASH feasibility trial. J Med Int Res 2020; in press.
Data-sharing statement
We will make anonymised qualitative extracts plus raw quantitative data available to other researchers on request and will deposit the questionnaire data in an appropriate database, such as the University of Glasgow’s Enlighten database. Please send any requests to the corresponding author.
Data were collected and stored in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998138 and (from May 2018) the European Union General Data Protection Regulation. At the point of data entry, participants were provided with a unique identifier, which protects their anonymity throughout the analysis process. A unique identifier was also assigned to participants in the process evaluation transcripts. Personal details were removed and stored separately from the participant data. A de-code key to the ID has been kept securely.
Digital interview recordings were stored on an encrypted, password-protected network drive, separately from identifying information. Transcription was undertaken by a specialist transcription service with whom the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit had an ongoing contractual arrangement, confidentiality agreement and relationship of trust. Following transcription, identifying information was removed. Anonymised transcripts printed for the purpose of analysis were stored in a locked cabinet and destroyed following the completion of analysis.
All data will be kept for at least 10 years, in line with University of Glasgow Research Governance Framework Regulations for clinical research. Data will be stored confidentially on password-protected servers maintained on the University of Glasgow network. Data integrity will be checked every 2 or 3 years. Further details on data management are described in a separate data management plan (see Report Supplementary Material 8).
We will make anonymised qualitative extracts plus raw quantitative data available to other researchers on request and will deposit the data in an appropriate database, such as the UK Data Archive.
Disclaimers
This report presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The views and opinions expressed by authors in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NHS, the NIHR, NETSCC, the PHR programme or the Department of Health and Social Care. If there are verbatim quotations included in this publication the views and opinions expressed by the interviewees are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect those of the authors, those of the NHS, the NIHR, NETSCC, the PHR programme or the Department of Health and Social Care.