Partnerships to Overcome Obesity Disparities in Hawaii

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application is a 3-year planning grant to establish community-academic partnerships aimed at obesity related health disparities in Native Hawaiians (NHs) and Pacific Peoples (PPs) which includes Filipinos and other Pacific Islanders. This partnership, entitled Partnerships for Improving Lifestyle Interventions (PILI) 'Ohana Program (Pili meaning relationship and 'ohana meaning family), includes 10 community organizations and a team of researchers from the Dept. of Native Hawaiian Health who will use CBPR approaches in all phases of the research process to implement an intervention to reduce obesity disparities in NH and PP communities. Obesity and overweight are well recognized public health problems in the U.S. and the magnitude of excess weight is greater among racial/ethnic minority populations. Among NHs, 70 to 80% of the adult population is estimated to be overweight or obese. Obesity-related disparities such as diabetes and heart disease (CVD) are also increasing among NHs and PPs. Mortality rates have not improved for CVD or DM for NHs and may even be on the rise. Thus, the PILI 'Ohana Program will develop a pilot intervention that will provide preliminary data for a more definitive hypothesis-driven 5-year research study through the following specific aims: 1) Establish a community-academic administrative structure that will organize and foster a co-learning environment to implement research activities to overcome health disparities in NH and PP communities. 2) Conduct community assessments focused on understanding obesity related health disparities and potential interventions to reduce these disparities across 3 different types of community organizations serving NHs and PPs. 3) Develop an intervention protocol that will integrate the best combination of community expertise and scientific research methods into a pilot intervention that will address maintenance of weight loss in NHs and PPs. 4) Implement a pilot study to determine whether a Family plus Community focused intervention will improve weight loss maintenance compared to Standard follow-up in overweight/obese NH and PP adults after receiving a standard individual focused behavioral intervention. The communities and researchers of the PILI 'Ohana Program are deeply committed to developing a co-learning environment to conduct interventions that will not only control obesity but also improve the health of their communities by developing and nurturing trustworthy partnerships.