Increases in support structures for healthy eating especially in low decile schools in New Zealand

AbstractObjectiveThe aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between area-level socio-economic status and healthy and less healthy eating behaviours among adolescents and to determine whether the relationship between area-level socio-economic status and dietary behaviours was related to the relevant attitudes and environments.DesignData were collected as part of Youth’07, a nationally representative survey of the health and well-being of New Zealand youth.SettingNew Zealand secondary schools, 2007.SubjectsA total of 9107 secondary-school students in New Zealand.ResultsStudents from more deprived areas perceived more supportive school environments and cared as much about healthy eating as students in more affluent areas. However, these students were significantly more likely to report consuming fast food, soft drinks and chocolates.ConclusionsAddressing area-level socio-economic disparities in healthy eating requires addressing the availability, affordability and marketing of unhealthy snack foods, particularly in economically deprived areas.

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Healthy eating among 10 – 13-year-old New Zealand children: Understanding choice using the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the role of parental influence

Psychology Health & Medicine ◽

10.1080/13548500601164396 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 12 (5) ◽

pp. 526-535 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Allison M. Hewitt ◽

Christine Stephens

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Parental Influence ◽

Theory Of Planned Behaviour ◽

Planned Behaviour

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Current nutrition promotion, beliefs and barriers among cancer nurses in Australia and New Zealand

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.1396 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. e1396 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Petra G. Puhringer ◽

Alicia Olsen ◽

Mike Climstein ◽

Sally Sargeant ◽

Lynnette M. Jones ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

New Zealand ◽

Cancer Patients ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Work Experience ◽

Years Of Experience ◽

Online Questionnaire ◽

Positive Effects ◽

Chi Square Analysis ◽

Cancer Nurses

Rationale.Many cancer patients and survivors do not meet nutritional and physical activity guidelines, thus healthier eating and greater levels of physical activity could have considerable benefits for these individuals. While research has investigated cancer survivors’ perspective on their challenges in meeting the nutrition and physical guidelines, little research has examined how health professionals may assist their patients meet these guidelines. Cancer nurses are ideally placed to promote healthy behaviours to their patients, especially if access to dieticians or dietary resources is limited. However, little is known about cancer nurses’ healthy eating promotion practices to their patients. The primary aim of this study was to examine current healthy eating promotion practices, beliefs and barriers of cancer nurses in Australia and New Zealand. A secondary aim was to gain insight into whether these practices, beliefs and barriers were influenced by the nurses’ hospital or years of work experience.Patients and Methods.An online questionnaire was used to obtain data. Sub-group cancer nurse comparisons were performed on hospital location (metropolitan vs regional and rural) and years of experience (<25 or ≥25 years) using ANOVA and chi square analysis for continuous and categorical data respectively.Results.A total of 123 Australasian cancer nurses responded to the survey. Cancer nurses believed they were often the major provider of nutritional advice to their cancer patients (32.5%), a value marginally less than dieticians (35.9%) but substantially higher than oncologists (3.3%). The majority promoted healthy eating prior (62.6%), during (74.8%) and post treatment (64.2%). Most cancer nurses felt that healthy eating had positive effects on the cancer patients’ quality of life (85.4%), weight management (82.9%), mental health (80.5%), activities of daily living (79.7%) and risk of other chronic diseases (79.7%), although only 75.5% agreed or strongly agreed that this is due to a strong evidence base. Lack of time (25.8%), adequate support structures (17.3%) nutrition expertise (12.2%) were cited by the cancer nurses as the most common barriers to promoting healthy eating to their patients. Comparisons based on their hospital location and years of experience, revealed very few significant differences, indicating that cancer nurses’ healthy eating promotion practices, beliefs and barriers were largely unaffected by hospital location or years of experience.Conclusion.Australasian cancer nurses have favourable attitudes towards promoting healthy eating to their cancer patients across multiple treatment stages and believe that healthy eating has many benefits for their patients. Unfortunately, several barriers to healthy eating promotion were reported. If these barriers can be overcome, nurses may be able to work more effectively with dieticians to improve the outcomes for cancer patients.

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Sophisticated Mediators: New Zealand-Born Samoan First-Time Mothers and Strategies for Their Health and Wellbeing

10.26686/wgtn.16984792.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Marianna Ellen Churchward

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Belief Systems ◽

Theoretical Perspective ◽

The Internet ◽

Support Structures ◽

Support Providers ◽

Early Motherhood ◽

Accessible Information ◽

First Time Mothers ◽

First Time

<p>This thesis explores the experiences of four New Zealand-born Samoan first time mothers during pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood living in Wellington. The impetus for this research arose from findings that showed a considerable variation in the prevalence of postnatal depression between Samoan women (7.6%), Tongan women (30.9%) and others (20% for all New Zealand mothers). Qualitative, face-to-face individual interviews were conducted within a qualitative feminist framework. The two interviews with each woman were conducted during the last trimester of their pregnancy (28+weeks gestation); and 12 months post-birth. The thesis drew upon the four-element model – Epistemology, Theoretical Perspective, Methodology and Methods to provide a framework to conceptualise and clarify the foundation for this research project. Thus the thesis is best described as a feminist phenomenological social constructionist approach. The findings revealed the women of this study were „Sophisticated Mediators‟ who, although faced with many challenges throughout their pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood experiences, mediated successfully between, and within, existing cultural and belief systems i.e. Samoan traditional values and New Zealand cultural system; to acquire or maintain resilience toward depressive symptoms during early motherhood. Support structures such as family, in particular mothers, proved to be a vital source of support for the women. Recommendations arising from the research are targeted at support providers and family members and this is discussed in detail. Antenatal care was important although antenatal classes not so; conversely, the women were high adopters of technology in the form of the internet to access information. It is vital for support providers to recognise the high regard the women had for the internet as a source of valuable and easily accessible information, and utilise those avenues more to provide information that will complement or improve the existing support structures. During the antenatal period, women should be encouraged to develop or strengthen relationships with a significant female who will be with them throughout the childbirth and early motherhood process.</p>

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Images of Homelessness: The Home of the Needy Aged

Architectural History Aotearoa ◽

10.26686/aha.v10i.7362 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

pp. 53-60

Author(s):

Christine McCarthy

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Support Structures ◽

Chronic Homelessness ◽

West Side ◽

North West ◽

Architectural Support ◽

The North ◽

The Press ◽

The Needy ◽

House Fires

Homelessness in 1880s New Zealand, as reported in the press, appears to be more intimate and less melodramatic than overseas examples. House fires, such as that of William Beals' eight-roomed house in Epsom, the destruction by fire of Mr Keogh's seven-roomed dwelling on the north-west side of Mount Pukekaroro, and the 1884 fire which broke out "on the grounds of St. Mary's Orphanage, Ponsonby" are examples. Chronic homelessness, when it appears, occurs via the reporting of institutional and architectural support structures. The paper will examine a specific example of an architecture for the homeless: the Home for the Needy Aged in Newtown, Wellington.

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Healthy and Indulgent Food Consumption Practices Within Grandparent–Grandchild Identity Bundles: A Qualitative Study of New Zealand and Danish Families

Journal of Family Issues ◽

10.1177/0192513x21992391 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 0192513X2199239

Author(s):

Stephanie O’Donohoe ◽

Malene Gram ◽

Caroline Marchant ◽

Heike Schänzel ◽

Anne Kastarinen

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Family Relationships ◽

Food Provisioning ◽

Family Identity ◽

Parental Feeding Practices ◽

Parental Feeding ◽

Consumption Practices ◽

Eating Practices

Both grandparenting and food provisioning practices play an important role in contemporary family life, but the role of food in grandparent–grandchild and wider family relationships is underresearched. Popular and academic discourse often focuses on grandparents as indulgent feeders with negative implications for children’s weight and eating practices. Drawing on the concept of family identity bundles and interviews with Danish and New Zealand grandparents and grandchildren, it was found that, for both generations, being alone together was a treat in itself and a time for treats, although they were fluent in the discourse of balance and moderation. Grandparents’ food-related practices were shaped by the internalized as well as actual presence of the parents, but they tended to experience rather than express tensions over parental feeding practices. These findings offer a nuanced account of grandparents’ role in children’s (un)healthy eating practices and of the role of food in intergenerational family relationships.

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Child-care nutrition environments: results from a survey of policy and practice in New Zealand early childhood education services

Public Health Nutrition ◽

10.1017/s1368980015002955 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 19 (9) ◽

pp. 1531-1542 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Sarah Gerritsen ◽

Clare Wall ◽

Susan Morton

Keyword(s):

Child Care ◽

New Zealand ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Online Survey ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Eating Behaviours ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Care Services ◽

Care Assessment ◽

Child Care Services

AbstractObjective:To describe nutrition environments in formal child care for 3- and 4-year-olds.Design:Cross-sectional online survey of nutrition-related child-care policy and practice. Written nutrition policies were analysed using the Wellness Child Care Assessment Tool.Setting:Licensed child-care services in the Auckland, Counties Manukau and Waikato regions of New Zealand.Subjects:Eight hundred and forty-seven services (private and community day care, kindergartens and playcentres).Results:Managers/head teachers of 257 child-care services completed the survey. Of services, 82·4 % had a written food, nutrition or wellness policy. Most policies did not refer to the national Food and Nutrition Guidelines and lacked directives for staff regarding recommended behaviours to promote healthy eating. Food was provided daily to children in 56·4 % of child-care services, including 33·5 % that provided lunch and at least two other meals/snacks every day. Teachers talked to children about food, and cooked with children, at least weekly in 60 % of child-care services. Nearly all services had an edible garden (89·5 %). Foods/beverages were sold for fundraising in the past 12 months by 37·2 % of services. The most commonly reported barrier to promoting nutrition was a lack of support from families (20·6 %).Conclusions:Although the majority of child-care services had a written nutrition policy, these were not comprehensive and contained weak statements that could be difficult to action. Foods served at celebrations and for fundraising were largely high in sugar, salt and/or saturated fat. Most services promoted some healthy eating behaviours but other widespread practices encouraged children to overeat or form unhealthy food preferences.

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Evaluating a healthy eating, healthy action program in small Mãori communities in Aotearoa, New Zealand

Australian Journal of Primary Health ◽

10.1071/py11096 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 74 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Christine Mercer ◽

Denise Riini ◽

Heather Hamerton ◽

Laurie Morrison ◽

Brighid McPherson

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Action Program ◽

Aotearoa New Zealand ◽

Primary Health ◽

High Incidence ◽

Health Initiatives ◽

Health Action ◽

And Control ◽

The Relationship

Evidence from health surveys have identified that Māori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, experience a high incidence of obesity with physical and social implications. In 2000, the New Zealand Government introduced a strategy aimed, among other objectives, at improving nutrition, increasing physical activity and reducing obesity through a ‘Healthy Eating Health Action’ (HEHA) strategy. As part of the HEHA strategy, a Māori primary health organisation (PHO) in a regional centre of Aotearoa, New Zealand, developed a program aimed at improving the health of the local Māori communities. The program, called Project REPLACE, invited participants to gradually change their behaviour by replacing behaviours potentially detrimental to health with a healthier alternative. Between 2009 and 2010 a team of researchers evaluated the program, taking care to use Māori approaches when conducting the research. The findings from the evaluation were that each community was innovative in their approaches to implementing Project REPLACE, drawing on their culture to combine healthy eating with increased exercise activities as well as measurements of achievement. The relationship that each coordinator had with the community was pivotal to the success of the program. Project REPLACE highlighted the importance of Māori ownership and control of health initiatives.

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Sophisticated Mediators: New Zealand-Born Samoan First-Time Mothers and Strategies for Their Health and Wellbeing

10.26686/wgtn.16984792 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Marianna Ellen Churchward

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Belief Systems ◽

Theoretical Perspective ◽

The Internet ◽

Support Structures ◽

Support Providers ◽

Early Motherhood ◽

Accessible Information ◽

First Time Mothers ◽

First Time

<p>This thesis explores the experiences of four New Zealand-born Samoan first time mothers during pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood living in Wellington. The impetus for this research arose from findings that showed a considerable variation in the prevalence of postnatal depression between Samoan women (7.6%), Tongan women (30.9%) and others (20% for all New Zealand mothers). Qualitative, face-to-face individual interviews were conducted within a qualitative feminist framework. The two interviews with each woman were conducted during the last trimester of their pregnancy (28+weeks gestation); and 12 months post-birth. The thesis drew upon the four-element model – Epistemology, Theoretical Perspective, Methodology and Methods to provide a framework to conceptualise and clarify the foundation for this research project. Thus the thesis is best described as a feminist phenomenological social constructionist approach. The findings revealed the women of this study were „Sophisticated Mediators‟ who, although faced with many challenges throughout their pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood experiences, mediated successfully between, and within, existing cultural and belief systems i.e. Samoan traditional values and New Zealand cultural system; to acquire or maintain resilience toward depressive symptoms during early motherhood. Support structures such as family, in particular mothers, proved to be a vital source of support for the women. Recommendations arising from the research are targeted at support providers and family members and this is discussed in detail. Antenatal care was important although antenatal classes not so; conversely, the women were high adopters of technology in the form of the internet to access information. It is vital for support providers to recognise the high regard the women had for the internet as a source of valuable and easily accessible information, and utilise those avenues more to provide information that will complement or improve the existing support structures. During the antenatal period, women should be encouraged to develop or strengthen relationships with a significant female who will be with them throughout the childbirth and early motherhood process.</p>

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