Description

Māori are disproportionately affected by socioeconomic and dietary factors that predispose to obesity and obesity-related illness.

Environmental interventions that make it easier to make healthy lifestyle choices will be most effective improving public health but there is also a place for behavioural interventions. However interventions designed for the general population tend to be less effective for Māori and may contribute to increased health inequities.

Dr Lisa Te Morenga will talk about using codesign and kaupapa Māori research approaches to design a mobile-phone delivered (mHealth) app that supports the health aspirations of Māori communities.

The Healthier Lives National Science Challenge project, OL@-OR@, which Dr Lisa Te Morenga co-leads with collaborators at University if Auckland and Massey University and involving research partners from Toi Tangata, the Fono and South Waikato Pacific Island Trust, used Māori protocols and knowledge systems, creation stories, proverbs, and oral histories and stories to generate discussion and insights on wellbeing with Māori whānau and communities, and to co-create an mHealth tool.

This approach empowered communities to take an active role in the research.