Community initiative reduces diabetes risk

University of Otago senior research fellow Dr Kirsten Coppell (left) and senior research technician Victoria Farmer look at posters designed and made by a North Island Maori community in an initiative developed to tackle diabetes. Photo by Linda Robertson.

A North Island Maori community came up with its own solutions to a growing diabetes problem, after a survey showed 10% of the community had diabetes and about 50% showed early signs of developing the disease.

A poster campaign, physical activity classes and cooking demonstrations were some of the initiatives the community developed in the two-year programme.

The end result was a stabilisation of the number of people with diabetes - contrary to national predictions of an increase - and a marked decrease in insulin resistance, which is the earliest detectable stage of diabetes, among 24 to 49-year-old women and men.

University of Otago world-leading diabetes and nutrition expert Prof Jim Mann, of Dunedin, said while clinical trials had shown individual lifestyle changes reduced the risk of diabetes, this was the first time it had been shown that risk could be reduced by community-based interventions.

"If we went and told them what to do that would be useless; it wouldn't work.

"It is empowering the community to do it themselves.''

The research results were applicable to all communities, but were "very important'' for Maori in particular, because they had "very high'' rates of diabetes, Prof Mann said.

The Ngati and Healthy Prevent Diabetes Project was a collaborative initiative headed by Ngati Porou Hauora and the Edgar National Centre for Diabetes Research at the University of Otago.

The university researchers acted in an advisory role and helped with the evaluation of
the results, but the programme itself was designed and led by the community, he said.

The programme featured health promotion, which included radio messages, a poster campaign and local celebrity involvement, and community education, such as physical activity classes and food and cooking demonstrations.

It also sought "tribal buy-in'' to the healthy lifestyle strategy, a change in procedures around nutrition at school and began to look at how to make the right sort of foods available locally at affordable prices.

Prof Mann said the research, which was presented at the International Diabetes Federation Western Pacific Congress in Wellington last week, was regarded as one of the highlights of the conference, which was attended by more than 1700 delegates.