Study of Health Assessment and Risk Evaluation in Aboriginal Peoples Action Toward Obesity Prevention (SHARE-AP Action)

Obesity is a major public health problem in North America. The most recent estimates indicate that over 35% of men and 27% of women over the age of 18 are obese (body mass index (BMI) ≥30), and the prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents has increased over the last two decades to about 13%. Obesity leads to a number of chronic health problems including diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and some cancers. Throughout the world, Aboriginal people suffer a high prevalence of overweight and obesity. This is likely due to their transition from a lifestyle of modest energy intake and high levels of physical activity, to a lifestyle of high energy intake and low levels of physical activity. This in turn has led to extraordinarily high rates of overweight, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

There is an urgent need to test interventions to reduce or prevent obesity among Aboriginal people. Obesity has been resistant to traditional public health education strategies and novel approaches at multiple levels to develop effective strategies are required. SHARE-AP ACTION is a randomized controlled trial testing if a household-based intervention to improve change dietary and physical activity patterns has the potential to succeed where individual, school based and community interventions have not. Our project frees individuals from being alone in making subtle lifestyle changes, and uses the strength of the family unit to make changes toward healthy lifestyles. The family structure proposed in this project builds on the strengths of the family unit in Aboriginal culture, invokes role-modelling within the households and outside the household via the health counsellor, and facilitates opportunities to engage in regular group activities in a community where there is a paucity of physical activity.

This randomized controlled trial will test the feasibility of a culturally-sensitive household-based intervention, will determine the effect of the intervention on body weight, abdominal fat, blood pressure, glucose, and lipids, and will provide unique evaluation on intensive behavioural, and lifestyle modification program in a high-risk Aboriginal community.

Eligible families are randomized to intervention or control at baseline and are followed-up for 6-months. The intervention consists of: weekly home visits by trained health counsellors who provide information, advice and support on improving dietary habits and increasing physical activity; weekly home delivery of bottled water to supplant sugared drinks; and a variety of afterschool/work physical activity programs and nutritional workshops. Control families receive written material, including Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating and Canada's Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Active Living, which outlines suggestions for healthy living, and none of the interventions.