Obesity is a major health issue in New Zealand and internationally. With 1 in 3 adults in Aotearoa estimated to be living with obesity, we need strategies to prevent this condition developing in the first place.
POI - Sleeping, eating, and physical activity
The Prevention of Overweight in Infancy (POI) study was a 4-arm randomised controlled trial assessing whether extra education and support around sleep, breastfeeding, diet, and physical activity reduced the number of children showing excessive weight gain over the first two years of life. More than 800 Dunedin families took part in POI.
At two years of age, we observed that children who had received the sleep intervention had approximately half the odds of obesity than children who had not received the sleep intervention. This benefit was still apparent at 3.5 and 5 years of age. Funding for the original intervention plus follow-up at 3.5, 5 and 11 years of age was obtained from the Health Research Council of New Zealand.
Learn more about the POI study
APPLE - A Pilot Programme for Lifestyle and Exercise
APPLE - A Pilot Programme for Lifestyle and Exercise was the first study in New Zealand, and one of the first studies internationally, to show that community-based initiatives could successfully reduce the rate of excessive weight gain in primary school-aged children. This study aimed to change the environment in which children live so that appropriate levels of physical activity and healthy foods were more widely available, and easily accessible.
The study involved seven schools and communities in Otago, and showed benefits both at two years (at the end of the intervention) and at four years, which was two years after the APPLE community activity co-ordinators in the schools were no longer employed.
Learn more about the APPLE study
Ngati and Healthy: prevent diabetes project
Ngati and Healthy, the 2006 Whanau Ora Award supreme winner and a 2006 Health Innovation Award finalist, was a collaborative community intervention between Ngāti Porou Hauora and the Edgar National Centre for Diabetes and Obesity Research (now EDOR). The project aimed to reduce the incidence of insulin resistance in the short term (a precursor to developing diabetes), and reduce type 2 diabetes in the long term.
Implementation of the diabetes prevention community intervention began in 2004. Insulin resistance prevalence after 2 years was reduced in those with the highest level of participation and most marked lifestyle changes.
Learn more about Ngati and Healthy
FLAME: Family, lifestyle, activity, movement and eating
The Family, Lifestyle, Activity, Movement and Eating study was a four-year longitudinal cohort observational study designed to examine factors in early childhood which may contribute to the development of overweight and obesity. 242 Dunedin families were enrolled when their child was 3 years of age, and followed semi-annually until the children were seven.
Learn more about the FLAME study
PLAY: Explorative play and managed risk
The PLAY intervention aimed to increase activity and decrease bullying by developing inexpensive environments that stimulated explorative play (rolling hills, fallen logs) and implementing school policies that allowed children to experience reasonable levels of managed risk during play (climbing trees, bull-rush).
Sixteen schools and more than 900 primary school-aged children were involved in our PLAY randomised controlled trial.