Research

The Research Work Package (RT1) has successfully completed its foundational phase and launched the first wave of data collection, moving ahead of schedule to deliver key insights into adolescent health.
Key Achieved Milestones:
The DASH Ethiopia team has achieved notable progress under the Research Work Package (RT1). A site-specific research protocol was developed, reviewed, and approved by the ACIPH Institutional Review Board, enabling the initiation of Wave 1 fieldwork. The 2024 HDSS round was successfully completed, providing a robust sampling frame for adolescent health surveillance in Addis Ababa. Data collectors and supervisors received comprehensive training, and Wave 1 data collection was implemented following a pretest, reaching 4,404 households, with 1,836 adolescents completing interviews. Concurrently, nutrition and mental health light-touch interventions were embedded into the survey, including a locally translated and piloted mental health comic book and a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) risk communication intervention. A data-sharing agreement was signed with network partners, and several potential paper topics were identified for both site-specific and cross-site analyses.
Future Plans:
In the coming period, the team will focus on completing data cleaning and analysis for Wave 1, drafting and submitting manuscripts for publication, and disseminating findings through the DASH research network. Further refinement and implementation of light-touch interventions will continue alongside subsequent survey waves to evaluate their effectiveness over time. Additionally, efforts will be directed toward strengthening community engagement, enhancing research capacity, and maintaining high data quality to ensure that findings meaningfully inform adolescent health policy and practice in Ethiopia.