Programmes in Cook Islands schools that teach healthy lifestyles in a bid to combat a crisis of non-communicable diseases appear to be working, but there are barriers holding back their success.
That's according to research being undertaken by a University of Auckland project, that is working with Cook Islands authorities to study their effectiveness.
One of the project's members is masters student Heimata Herman, is surveying students at her former school before and after the programme to see how their attitudes to health change.
She told Jamie Tahana that students are already reporting that their habits have improved, but some factors - such as parents - can sometimes hold back progress.
Public health sign in the Cook Islands
Photo: RNZI / Walter Zweifel
Transcript
HEIMATA HERMAN: A lot of the NCDS are preventable through lifestyle behaviours and we found that it is a lot harder to change behaviours and to maintain these behaviours in adulthood and that behaviours established during adolescence are going to continue into adulthood so we would rather intervene at an earlier stage to see more long-term health gains for the younger generation.
JAMIE TAHANA: And that is sort of happening isn't it? There is these health literacy programmes in schools, and that is where your research comes into it isn't it? You are looking at the effectiveness of this?
HH: Yes. So how my project came about was that when I finished my undergraduate studies in 2015 I was fortunate to get a job on the project as a research assistant. That gave me a really good understanding into the extent the project team was evaluating whether young people who participate in this programme are actually improving their health knowledge and whether it is leading to behaviour change. So from the evidence we discovered last year, we found that a lot of the young people who participated, had developed and retained the information and more importantly they were reducing their junk food consumption. So when I did focus group interviews with these students last year it was clear that there were issues of barriers and facilitators around positive behaviour change. This is where I started to think about, oh wow this would be a really good research question to explore more into. I wanted to find out why is it that some students can make the lifestyle change and some don't. And a lot of these students say they received the report and some acknowledged they needed the support but they weren't doing it.
JT: So it's not so much the students themselves, they know what is good, they're willing to make the changes, it is the environment around them that's forcing this?
HH: Yes. Well it is a combination of factors. From a lot of the early evidence we found, and with interviews with students, a lot of them said they do acknowledge that parents have control over the foods that are available in their homes but they also acknowledged that they still control the food they buy outside of home. What is more important here is that students are saying I am actually taking what I learn at school and sharing that with my family and friends back at home. So a lot of them are actually taking this evidence back home, discussing it with their families and a lot of the families are reporting and saying we don't actually know the extent of the NCD or obesity issue in the Cook Islands or in the region. From the interviews and the data I will collect next month, I am hoping to get a better understanding and share this with the schools, the programme and the Cook Island community to give them a understanding of ways in which we can better support, whether it be the programme or other areas or ministries and how they can better support students and their families to change. I think we have to acknowledge and recognise that there may be small changes, we may not see the big lifestyle changes that some might expect. It is going to take time.
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