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Making nutrition support accessible and applicable for New Zealand communities

Year:
2021
Duration:
17 months
Approved budget:
$30,000.00
Researchers:
Professor Pamela von Hurst
,
Professor Cathryn Conlon
,
Dr Rachel Batty
,
Mrs Cherise Pendergrast
Proposal type:
Health Delivery Research Activation Grant
Lay summary
Two substantial health information reports (PWC and NZIER) confirm that nutrition support is central to prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Recently announced health reforms include a greater emphasis on prevention, but how can this work with an overloaded, under-staffed primary health-care sector? The proposed project will examine existing community-based disease prevention intervention programmes with particular consideration of Māori, who are at increased risk of NCDs. In order to gauge programme effectiveness and community impact, we will engage with providers to identify the nature of nutrition support and methods of evaluation. While appreciating that economic responsibility requires some level of standardisation, such programmes also need to incorporate customised cultural and social elements in order to meet the needs of their communities. Our aim is to identify the features of effective programmes to inform the development of an underlying standard for use in a new disease prevention paradigm.