Healthier Together: Implementation and evaluation of a co-designed, culturally tailored childhood obesity community prevention program for Māori and Pacific Islander children and families.

Issue Addressed: Co-designed and culturally tailored preventive initiatives delivered in childhood have high potential to close the cross-cultural gap in health outcomes of priority populations. Māori and Pacific Islander people living in Australia exhibit a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity and higher rates of multimorbidity, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Methods: This mixed-methods, pilot implementation and evaluation study, aimed to evaluate the implementation of a community-based, co-designed and culturally tailored childhood obesity prevention program, using quantitative (pre-post anthropometric measurement, pre-post health behaviour questionnaire) and qualitative (semi-structured interview) methods.

Healthier Together: Co-design of a culturally tailored childhood obesity community prevention program for Māori & Pacific Islander children and families.

Issue Addressed: Children of Māori & Pacific Islander descent living in Australia have a greater prevalence of overweight/obesity and an increased risk of adverse health outcomes. This study aimed to co-design Healthier Together, a community-based, childhood overweight/obesity prevention program tailored to Māori & Pacific Islander cultures.

Methods: Co-design involved a three-phase, iterative, participatory and experience-based process, guided by the Te Ara Tika: Guidelines for Māori Research Ethics to promote respect and equity.