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Process evaluation of a community-based adolescent obesity prevention project in Tonga

BACKGROUND: The rising burden of obesity in Tonga is alarming. The promotion of healthy behaviours and environments requires immediate urgent action and a multi-sectoral approach. A three-year community based study titled the Ma'alahi Youth Project (MYP) conducted in Tonga from 2005-2008 aimed...

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Autores principales: Fotu, Kalesita F, Moodie, Marj M, Mavoa, Helen M, Pomana, Siosifa, Schultz, Jimaima T, Swinburn, Boyd A
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3098171/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21549018
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-284
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author Fotu, Kalesita F
Moodie, Marj M
Mavoa, Helen M
Pomana, Siosifa
Schultz, Jimaima T
Swinburn, Boyd A
author_facet Fotu, Kalesita F
Moodie, Marj M
Mavoa, Helen M
Pomana, Siosifa
Schultz, Jimaima T
Swinburn, Boyd A
author_sort Fotu, Kalesita F
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The rising burden of obesity in Tonga is alarming. The promotion of healthy behaviours and environments requires immediate urgent action and a multi-sectoral approach. A three-year community based study titled the Ma'alahi Youth Project (MYP) conducted in Tonga from 2005-2008 aimed to increase the capacity of the whole community (schools, churches, parents and adolescents) to promote healthy eating and regular physical activity and to reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity amongst youth and their families. This paper reflects on the process evaluation for MYP, against a set of Best Practice Principles for community-based obesity prevention. METHODS: MYP was managed by the Fiji School of Medicine. A team of five staff in Tonga were committed to planning, implementation and evaluation of a strategic plan, the key planks of which were developed during a two day community workshop. Intervention activities were delivered in villages, churches and schools, on the main island of Tongatapu. Process evaluation data covering the resource utilisation associated with all intervention activities were collected, and analysed by dose, frequency and reach for specific strategies. The action plan included three standard objectives around capacity building, social marketing and evaluation; four nutrition; two physical activity objectives; and one around championing key people as role models. RESULTS: While the interventions included a wide mix of activities straddling across all of these objectives and in both school and village settings, there was a major focus on the social marketing and physical activity objectives. The intervention reach, frequency and dose varied widely across all activities, and showed no consistent patterns. CONCLUSIONS: The adolescent obesity interventions implemented as part of the MYP program comprised a wide range of activities conducted in multiple settings, touched a broad spectrum of the population (wider than the target group), but the dose and frequency of activities were generally insufficient and not sustained. Also the project confirmed that, while the MYP resulted in increased community awareness of healthy behaviours, Tonga is still in its infancy in terms of conducting public health research and lacks research infrastructure and capacity.
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spelling pubmed-30981712011-05-20 Process evaluation of a community-based adolescent obesity prevention project in Tonga Fotu, Kalesita F Moodie, Marj M Mavoa, Helen M Pomana, Siosifa Schultz, Jimaima T Swinburn, Boyd A BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: The rising burden of obesity in Tonga is alarming. The promotion of healthy behaviours and environments requires immediate urgent action and a multi-sectoral approach. A three-year community based study titled the Ma'alahi Youth Project (MYP) conducted in Tonga from 2005-2008 aimed to increase the capacity of the whole community (schools, churches, parents and adolescents) to promote healthy eating and regular physical activity and to reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity amongst youth and their families. This paper reflects on the process evaluation for MYP, against a set of Best Practice Principles for community-based obesity prevention. METHODS: MYP was managed by the Fiji School of Medicine. A team of five staff in Tonga were committed to planning, implementation and evaluation of a strategic plan, the key planks of which were developed during a two day community workshop. Intervention activities were delivered in villages, churches and schools, on the main island of Tongatapu. Process evaluation data covering the resource utilisation associated with all intervention activities were collected, and analysed by dose, frequency and reach for specific strategies. The action plan included three standard objectives around capacity building, social marketing and evaluation; four nutrition; two physical activity objectives; and one around championing key people as role models. RESULTS: While the interventions included a wide mix of activities straddling across all of these objectives and in both school and village settings, there was a major focus on the social marketing and physical activity objectives. The intervention reach, frequency and dose varied widely across all activities, and showed no consistent patterns. CONCLUSIONS: The adolescent obesity interventions implemented as part of the MYP program comprised a wide range of activities conducted in multiple settings, touched a broad spectrum of the population (wider than the target group), but the dose and frequency of activities were generally insufficient and not sustained. Also the project confirmed that, while the MYP resulted in increased community awareness of healthy behaviours, Tonga is still in its infancy in terms of conducting public health research and lacks research infrastructure and capacity. BioMed Central 2011-05-09 /pmc/articles/PMC3098171/ /pubmed/21549018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-284 Text en Copyright ©2011 Fotu et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Fotu, Kalesita F
Moodie, Marj M
Mavoa, Helen M
Pomana, Siosifa
Schultz, Jimaima T
Swinburn, Boyd A
Process evaluation of a community-based adolescent obesity prevention project in Tonga
title Process evaluation of a community-based adolescent obesity prevention project in Tonga
title_full Process evaluation of a community-based adolescent obesity prevention project in Tonga
title_fullStr Process evaluation of a community-based adolescent obesity prevention project in Tonga
title_full_unstemmed Process evaluation of a community-based adolescent obesity prevention project in Tonga
title_short Process evaluation of a community-based adolescent obesity prevention project in Tonga
title_sort process evaluation of a community-based adolescent obesity prevention project in tonga
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3098171/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21549018
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-284
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