PILI ‘Ohana Project: A CBPR Approach to Eliminate Obesity Disparities in Hawai‘i

Introduction: Overweight and obesity are growing epidemics in the U.S. For Native Hawaiians (NHs) and other Pacific Peoples (PPs), the prevalence of overweight/obesity (BMI >25) is among the highest at 75.2%. Thus, obesity-related conditions are major health problems in these populations. The PILI ‘Ohana CBPR partnership (POP) was formed to address obesity disparities in Hawai‘i and is comprised of researchers from 4 community organizations and the University of Hawai‘i. Results/Discussion: The community partners conducted an obesity related needs/assets assessment of their communities. This informed the design of a weight loss maintenance intervention, called the PILI Lifestyle Program (PLP). PLP was compared with a standard behavioral weight loss maintenance program (SBP) in a CBPR, non-blinded, pilot randomized controlled trial. Among PLP participants who completed at least half of the sessions, PLP participants were 5.1-fold (95% CI=1.06-24; p=0.02) more likely to have maintained their weight loss than SBP participants. Conclusions: POP successfully designed, implemented, and tested the efficacy of a community-informed, -based, and -led weight loss maintenance program for NHs and PPs. The results indicated that significant weight loss maintenance was achievable. The PLP shows promise in reducing the obesity-related disparities among NHs and PPs and demonstrates the communities' capacity to engage in scientific research. Current Activities: POP received another 5 years of funding from the NCMHD to test the efficacy of an 18-month culturally-tailored intervention delivered face-to-face or via DVD compared to a control group. The importance of CBPR in eliminating obesity disparities will be highlighted based on the lessons learned.