Tackling obesity rates among New Zealand's Pacific women through culturally appropriate exercise is the subject of recently published research.
Physical activity and its health benefits for New Zealand women have been broken down by ethnicity.
Massey University's Wendy O'Brien led the research as part of her PhD published last week in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
She says it's part of a larger study which looks into predictors of disease and obesity.
Dr O'Brien looked at physical activity among three groups of women - European, Maori and Pacific.
She told Dominic Godfrey, Pacific women were the least physically active of the groups studied and are three-and-a-half-times more at risk of type-2 diabetes.
Wendy O'Brien graduating with her doctorate. Photo: David Wiltshire
