Obesity figures for Pacific people in New Zealand and in the region are pretty bad but a Otago University study has detailed three approaches that can ensure a healthy state is maintained..
Researchers interviewed and assessed 68 parents and adolescents from 30 Pacific Island families in a low socio-economic neighbourhood.
The study used a novel solution-focused approach which looked at what families were doing well to keep themselves healthy.
Lead researcher Dr Tasileta Teevale told Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor what the study found.
Photo: RNZI/Sally Round
Transcript
TASILETA TEEVALE: What we found was that there were differences in two sets of households. One household had children that were obese and the other household had children that were a healthy weight. And we looked at the differences between the two and what we found was families with regular weight children regularly ate breakfast and lunch meals, whereas parents and children from the obese family often skipped those key meals and often that was because of time constraints, especially for parents who were working night shift. But what was interesting about that is that children matched their parents eating habits. In addition to that in the households were there were obese children there were a lot of fizzy drinks being for the kids, whereas in the other households with healthy weight children there were very strict rules around banning fizzy drinks in the homes and making them available in the home. The other key difference was households had rules with limiting screen time. So television viewing and electron gaming didn’t so much with healthy children had rules around limiting the time that the kids could watch TV or play their PlayStation games. Whereas in the other household there wasn’t any of that strict parenting going on. So those were the main kind of three differences between the households.
MOERA TUILAEPA-TAYLOR: I found it interesting that the kids who were overweight, they obviously mirrored what their parents were eating as well. Would you say it’d be learned behaviour in some cases?
TT: Yeah. In some cases of working environments of both parents and children. So if the parent is time constrained and they’re running out of the door in the morning or their getting home from a double shift at night they’re not necessarily going to be able to provide a cooked breakfast for their children. It’s about whatever is time convenient. So leaving their house in the morning and stopping off at the dairy on the bakery to buy a pie and fizzy drink and making that the breakfast choice. You’re kind of constrained by those environmental constraints, if you like rather than it being just being a simple choice that the parent is making.
MTT: So it seems kind of overwhelming, but what are the recommendations out of your study?
TT: Well our recommendations are actually for Pacific families in New Zealand. There are some that are doing really well in terms of keeping their children healthy and they’ve made some strict household rules to make sure the kids are receiving some nutrition and the physical activity they need. So the parents are aware of this, or have made those changes in the way that they are there to have breakfast and provide breakfast and lunch with their children, they maintain very strict rules around fizzy drinks in the home and they also have very strict rules around TV time and electronic gaming time for their kids. I think if parents just focus on those three simple things that they can do in their homes that’s one way of making sure they keep their kids healthy.
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