Massey tests team weight loss for Māori and Pasifika

Friday, July 22, 2016

Massey tests team weight loss competition for Māori and Pasifika

A new team weight loss competition for Māori and Pacific people is to be trialled by Massey University’s School of Public Health. The study, led by Associate Professor Marewa Glover, will involve three competitions, in Northland, Manawatū and a Pasifika competition in Auckland.

Seven teams of seven people who are at high risk for diabetes type 2 or cardiovascular disease and who have a Body Mass Index of 30 or more, will be recruited by local providers to take part in the Ka Mau Te Wehi trial. The teams will receive information about how to lose weight and they earn points for achieving daily goals aimed at increasing physical activity and changing eating habits. Points are also earned for completing weekly tasks designed to increase their knowledge of portion sizes and healthier cooking choices.

A further 150 people will be needed as a comparison group. They will be asked to complete just the blood tests, measurement of their weight and questionnaires at the beginning, after six months and at the end of the 12-month study.

“The obesity epidemic has hit Māori and Pacific people hard,” says Dr Glover. “We’ve had disproportionately high rates of obesity for many years with 66 per cent of Pacific people and nearly half of Māori classified as obese. Unfortunately efforts to date have not been able to stop the rise in obesity across the population. Obesity among Māori women has gone up from 42 per cent in 2006/7 to 48 per cent in 2014/15. Among European men and women obesity has risen from 24 per cent to 29 per cent in the same period.”

The trial is funded through the Ministry of Health’s Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Reduction and Support package. Reducing obesity is a key target as it is associated with higher risk of and greater ill-health from diabetes and CVD.

“Obesity is complex and will require a mix of intervention strategies at the individual, family, community and wider societal level,” says Karen Evison of the Ministry of Health. “We know that what people eat and what people do in their leisure time is hugely influenced by their cultural beliefs and practices. This is why we need to test culturally based interventions.”

Mafi Funaki-Tahifote, a registered dietitian with the Heart Foundation’s Pacific Heartbeat programme, is a co-investigator on the study and will be co-ordinating the Pacific competition.

“Our Pacific people’s already use competition between groups for promoting exercise and weight-loss. What we’ve needed is hard evidence that these programmes can help people lose weight and make sustainable changes,” says Mrs Funaki-Tahifote.

Professor Hayden McRobbie, an external co-investigator will be providing a medical and health behaviour change perspective.

“Obesity is not affecting children in isolation. Interventions that help parents reduce and control their weight will flow on to reducing childhood obesity. Our main challenge is to identify effective solutions that General Practitioners can recommend to their patients,” says Professor McRobbie. He was recently appointed as the Raising Healthy Kids Clinical Champion Childhood Obesity by the Minister of Health Jonathan Coleman.

Māori health providers, Te Wakahuia Manawatū Trust in Palmerston North and the Ngāti Hine Health Trust in Northland will be co-ordinating the competitions in their regions.

There is a prize pool of $5000 for each region; $1000 at the end of two months and four months; and a grand prize of $3000 at the end of the six-month competition. The prize goes to a charity or community organisation chosen by the teams.

The cross-disciplinary research team includes other Massey University diet and exercise experts including Professor Bernhard Breier, Chair of Human Nutrition and Rozanne Kruger an Associate Professor of Dietetics and Human Nutrition from the School of Food and Nutrition. Dr Geoff Kira, from the Research Centre for Māori Health and Development provides expertise in sports and exercise. Dr Anette Kira, a social and computer scientist from The University of Auckland, and Samoan researcher from Massey’s School of Public Health Jane Stephen, have worked with Dr Glover on previous projects, to develop the design and testing of a number of community and web-based health interventions.

Background information:

- Diabetes is one of New Zealand’s fastest growing long-term conditions, with about five per cent of the population diagnosed with diabetes. In 2006, diabetes accounted for more than 4.7 per cent of overall health loss and 14 per cent of medical and surgical bed days nationally.

- Long term health conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease account for a higher proportion of illness and death among Māori and Pacific peoples as well as those of lower socio-economic status.

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