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Indigenous approaches to reducing childhood obesity

Year:
2017
Duration:
18 months
Approved budget:
$37,181.00
Researchers:
Professor Boyd Swinburn
Health issue:
Obesity
Proposal type:
US Collaboration Enabling Grant
Lay summary
Obesity is a systemic problem which demands systemic solutions. Indigenous populations in NZ and the US suffer from a high prevalence childhood obesity. Unique indigenous-led approaches to health are being developed among Maori, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian communities. This grant will bring together researchers in indigenous health, systems science and obesity prevention from NZ, Montana, and Hawaii to develop a research project to compare indigenous approaches to reducing childhood obesity using a novel method called group model building. This is a highly participatory method which will not only describe child obesity in the different locations in systems terms but it will also identify indigenous-developed systemic solutions, stimulate community actions and measure changes over time. The outcomes from this enabling grant will be a review of indigenous approaches to child obesity (a summary to be published in Lancet), pilot data on community systems, a grant application, and strengthened international collaborations.