A scoping review exploring the needs, barriers, and facilitators to the collection of biological data in adolescence for mental health research

Background: There is increasing recognition of the challenge of representativeness in data, including economic, social, and ethnic diversity, in biological mental health research. This is a particular challenge in adolescence, where brain and body development are impacted by the environment. The first step in addressing this is understanding the scale of the challenge.Aims: To explore existing literature to identify and understand the needs, barriers, and facilitators in collecting biological data in adolescent mental health research. Methods: A systematic search identified papers recruiting participants between the ages 11-18, collecting biological data, and focusing on mental health/related psychopathology outcomes. Screening was performed in duplicate, and charting was an iterative process. Results: An initial search yielded 11,896 papers. After removal of duplicates and exclusions following screening, 814 papers were included in the review, with 754 explored for data on recruitment, retention, and engagement. Sample sizes <99 were most common (53%), and health settings (36%) were the most frequently used recruitment sources. As labels for ‘barriers’, ‘facilitators’, and ‘needs’ were not used in included papers, information on recruitment, retention, and engagement (such as strategies to engage with young people, stakeholders or communities, for example, involvement in the development of the study) was explored as a proxy. Only 9% of papers reported engagement, and fewer evaluated the efficacy of these strategies. Less than half of the papers (48%) reported retention data, with reasons for lost data mostly relating to the nature of the data collection (for example, the specific methods used, such as scans). Conclusions: Current research does not adequately report the methods used to ensure sufficient collection of representative data. Limited reporting challenges whether facilitators are being implemented or not. Advancing the field requires detailed guidelines, and we present clear recommendations that could serve as the first step to this development.