How has citizen science been used in prevention?

Key messages

• Citizen science approaches, which actively involve members of the public in scientific research, are increasingly being recognised for their potential benefits in chronic disease prevention.
• We conducted a scoping review to explore how citizen science approaches have been used in chronic disease prevention to inform future work in this field.
• Citizen science in prevention is a rapidly growing field, and these approaches have been used most often in physical activity and nutrition research, to identify issues; generate and prioritise solutions; develop and evaluate interventions; and build community capacity for action.
• Most citizen science projects are led by researchers, and there is potential to better engage knowledge users, such as policy makers and practitioners, in developing and implementing projects.
• Citizen science approaches were found to be feasible, useful and can help bring about impacts for citizen scientists and policy and practice stakeholders.
• More investment is needed in funding mechanisms and building infrastructure to enable longevity and scalability of citizen science projects and support the use of citizen science as a tool for prevention research, policy and practice.