A Community-Based, Environmental Chronic Disease Prevention Intervention to Improve Healthy Eating Psychosocial Factors and Behaviors in Indigenous Populations in the Canadian Arctic

Abstract

Diet-related chronic diseases are highly prevalent among indigenous populations in the Canadian Arctic. A community-based, multi-institutional nutritional and lifestyle intervention-Healthy Foods North-was implemented to improve food-related psychosocial factors and behaviors among Inuit and Inuvialuit in four intervention communities (with two comparison communities) in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, Canada, in 2008. The 12-month program was developed from theory (social cognitive theory and social ecological models), formative research, and a community participatory process. It included an environmental component to increase healthy food availability in local stores and activities consisting of community-wide and point-of-purchase interactive educational taste tests and cooking demonstrations, media (e.g., radio ads, posters, shelf labels), and events held in multiple venues, including recreation centers and schools. The intervention was evaluated using pre- and postassessments with 246 adults from intervention and 133 from comparison communities (311 women, 68 men; mean age 42.4 years; 78.3% retention rate). Outcomes included psychosocial constructs (healthy eating knowledge, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions), frequency of healthy and unhealthy food acquisition, healthiness of commonly used food preparation methods, and body mass index (kg/m(2)). After adjustment for demographic, socioeconomic status, and body mass index variables, respondents living in intervention communities showed significant improvements in food-related self-efficacy (β = 0.15, p = .003) and intentions (β = 0.16, p = .001) compared with comparison communities. More improvements from the intervention were seen in overweight, obese, and high socioeconomic status respondents. A community-based, multilevel intervention is an effective strategy to improve psychosocial factors for healthy nutritional behavior change to reduce chronic disease in indigenous Arctic populations.

Supporting Inuit food security: A synthesis of initiatives in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Northwest Territories

“…The Inuvialuit component of HFN included three of the six ISR communities, where two received the intervention and one served as a control group with delayed intervention. Program impacts were evaluated in relation to psychosocial (Mead, Gittelsohn, De Roose, & Sharma, 2010a;Mead, Gittelsohn, Roache, Corriveau, & Sharma, 2013) socio-economic , healthy eating behaviour, and diet quality outcomes (Bains et al, 2014;Kolahdooz, Butler, et al, 2014;Zotor et al, 2012). Overall, HFN showed some success in mitigating the negative impacts of the nutrition transition among Inuvialuit.…”

Impact of the Healthy Foods North nutrition intervention program on Inuit and Inuvialuit food consumption and preparation methods in Canadian Arctic communities

“…Exclusion criteria included pregnant and lactating women (due to this groups’ different nutritional requirements and possible changes in dietary habits) and residents <19 years. Assignment of communities to the intervention or control group was decided by the government and was based on population size, the percentage of Inuit or Inuvialuit in the population, wage economy and engagement in traditional food gathering practices [32]. …”

An innovative team-based weightloss competition to reduce cardiovascular and diabetes risk among Māori and Pacific people: rationale and method for the study and its evaluation

“…These interventions most commonly included exercise [10][11][12][13][14] and/or dietary education [5,9,13,14]. Other interventions, that have shown promise aimed at addressing food availability, [15] community healthcare worker outreach [8] or taught mindfulness [7,16].…”

“…Internationally, there have been some interventions for indigenous people, for reducing T2DM prevalence [5,[7][8][9][10][11][12] or that aimed to reduce obesity, CVD and diabetes risk [13][14][15]. These interventions most commonly included exercise [10][11][12][13][14] and/or dietary education [5,9,13,14].…”