Developing Programs for African Families, by African Families: Engaging African Migrant Families in Melbourne in Health Promotion Interventions

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Obesity is an emerging problem for African migrants in Australia, but few prevention programs incorporate their cultural beliefs and values. This study reports on the application of community capacity-building and empowerment principles in 4 workshops with Sudanese families in Australia. Workshop participants prioritized health behaviors, skill and knowledge gaps, and environments for change to identify culturally centered approaches to health promotion. The workshops highlighted a need for culturally and age-appropriate interventions that build whole-of-family skills and knowledge around the positive effects of physical activity and nutrition to improve health within communities while reducing intergenerational and gender role family conflicts.

Related collections

Most cited references 16

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Reducing obesity in early childhood: results from Romp & Chomp, an Australian community-wide intervention program.

Florentine de Groot, Jimmy Bell, Maree Crellin … (2010)

There is growing evidence that community-based interventions can reduce childhood obesity in older children. We aimed to determine the effectiveness of the Romp & Chomp intervention in reducing obesity and promoting healthy eating and active play in children aged 0-5 y. Romp & Chomp was a community-wide, multisetting, multistrategy intervention conducted in Australia from 2004 to 2008. The intervention occurred in a large regional city (Geelong) with a target group of 12,000 children and focused on community capacity building and environmental (political, sociocultural, and physical) changes to increase healthy eating and active play in early-childhood care and educational settings. The evaluation was repeat cross-sectional with a quasiexperimental design and comparison sample. Main outcome measures were body mass index (BMI), standardized BMI (zBMI; according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2000 reference charts), and prevalence of overweight/obesity and obesity-related behaviors in children aged 2 and 3.5 y. After the intervention there was a significantly lower mean weight, BMI, and zBMI in the 3.5-y-old subsample and a significantly lower prevalence of overweight/obesity in both the 2- and 3.5-y-old subsamples (by 2.5 and 3.4 percentage points, respectively) than in the comparison sample (a difference of 0.7 percentage points; P < 0.05) compared with baseline values. Intervention child-behavioral data showed a significantly lower intake of packaged snacks (by 0.23 serving), fruit juice (0.52 serving), and cordial (0.43 serving) than that in the comparison sample (all P < 0.05). A community-wide multisetting, multistrategy intervention in early-childhood settings can reduce childhood obesity and improve young children's diets. This trial was registered with the Australian Clinical Trials Registry at anzctr.org.au as ACTRN12607000374460.

0 comments Cited 106 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Reducing unhealthy weight gain in children through community capacity-building: results of a quasi-experimental intervention program, Be Active Eat Well.

Berry P. H. Kremer, R Cuttler, Aaron Bell … (2008)

Be Active Eat Well (BAEW) was a multifaceted community capacity-building program promoting healthy eating and physical activity for children (aged 4-12 years) in the Australian town of Colac. To evaluate the effects of BAEW on reducing children's unhealthy weight gain. BAEW had a quasi-experimental, longitudinal design with anthropometric and demographic data collected on Colac children in four preschools and six primary schools at baseline (2003, n=1001, response rate: 58%) and follow-up (2006, n=839, follow-up rate: 84%). The comparison sample was a stratified random selection of preschools (n=4) and primary schools (n=12) from the rest of the Barwon South Western region of Victoria, with baseline assessment in 2003-2004 (n=1183, response rate: 44%) and follow-up in 2006 (n=979, follow-up rate: 83%). Colac children had significantly lower increases in body weight (mean: -0.92 kg, 95% CI: -1.74 to -0.11), waist (-3.14 cm, -5.07 to -1.22), waist/height (-0.02, -0.03 to -0.004), and body mass index z-score (-0.11, -0.21 to -0.01) than comparison children, adjusted for baseline variable, age, height, gender, duration between measurements and clustering by school. In Colac, the anthropometric changes were not related to four indicators of socioeconomic status (SES), whereas in the comparison group 19/20 such analyses showed significantly greater gains in anthropometry in children from lower SES families. Changes in underweight and attempted weight loss were no different between the groups. Building community capacity to promote healthy eating and physical activity appears to be a safe and effective way to reduce unhealthy weight gain in children without increasing health inequalities.

0 comments Cited 96 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Displacement and health.

Chris Thomas, L. Thomas (2003)

The health needs of displaced populations vary widely. The question as to the demands displaced populations place on health care resources and health care providers in their destination countries or regions remains the subject of great debate and contention. Internationally, health care workers are faced with complex challenges in providing care to displaced populations. This paper highlights some of the key health issues for displaced populations around the globe. Whilst 'Band Aid' solutions to existing health problems are useful in the short term, the paper describes the need for long-term public health prevention and educational strategies to enable displaced communities full access to and participation in their new 'home' communities.

0 comments Cited 56 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Title: Family & Community Health

Abbreviated Title: Family & Community Health

Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)

ISSN (Print): 0160-6379

Publication date Created: 2014

Publication date (Print): 2014

Volume: 37

Issue: 1

Pages: 60-73

Article

DOI: 10.1097/FCH.0000000000000011

PubMed ID: 24297008

SO-VID: 2f3ae5fe-0562-4969-9681-6531c38327ef

History

Data availability:

Comments

Comment on this article

scite_

Cited by 10

See all cited by

- Version 1

Developing Programs for African Families, by African Families : Engaging African Migrant Families in Melbourne in Health Promotion Interventions

Read this article at

Abstract

Related collections

African Languages

Most cited references 16

Reducing obesity in early childhood: results from Romp & Chomp, an Australian community-wide intervention program.

Reducing unhealthy weight gain in children through community capacity-building: results of a quasi-experimental intervention program, Be Active Eat Well.

Displacement and health.

Author and article information

Journal

Article

History

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 1,543

Cited by 10