What is PILI ‘Ohana?
For over eight years, The PILI ‘Ohana Partnership (POP) has been engaging in community-based participatory research (CBPR) to address obesity and related disparities in Hawaii and the larger Pacific. The POP has grown to comprise seven community, academic, and state organizations serving Native Hawaiians and Pacific Peoples (NHs/PPs): 1) Hawai‘i Maoli of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, 2) Kula no nā Po‘e Hawai‘i of the Papakōlea, Kewalo, and Kalāwahine Hawaiian Homestead communities, 3) Ke Ola Mamo, the Native Hawaiian Health Care System for the island of ‘Oahu, 4) Kōkua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services, 5) the Pacific Chronic Disease Coalition (PCDC), 6) the Department of Native Hawaiian Health (DNHH) at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM), and 7) the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
The aim of PILI ‘Ohana is to integrate community wisdom and expertise with scientific methods to conduct research on health disparities, with a specific emphasis on obesity, in Native Hawaiian and Pacific Peoples (including Filipinos, Chuukese, and other Pacific Islanders).
The project is collectively owned amongst all research partners, both academic and community, on behalf of the Native Hawaiian and Pacific People communities served by the project.
Community organizations serve as co-investigators with the academic researchers and play an active role in the planning, decision-making, and carrying out of research activities.
Interventions
We have developed two culturally-congruent, community-placed, and evidence-based health promotion programs: 1) PILI Lifestyle Program (PLP), a 9-month intervention targeting overweight/obesity in NHs/PPs and 2) Partners in Care (PIC), a 3-month intervention to improve diabetes self-management among NHs/PPs. In Phase I and II of NIMHD’s CBPR Initiative, the PLP and PIC were developed and tested by the POP using a CBPR approach and found efficacious in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Their cultural-congruence and effectiveness were also demonstrated, having been designed by NH/PP stakeholders and delivered and evaluated in real-world settings by community peer educators (CPEs) who were residents/clients/employees of the original partnering community based organizations.
Publications
About Our Name
The name adopted for this project is PILI ‘Ohana. PILI is an acronym for Partnerships to Improve Lifestyle Interventions.
Pili is also a Hawaiian word which means: close relationship, relative, to be with, adhere to, touch and join.
‘Ohana is also a Hawaiian word which means: family, relative, kin group; related.
Therefore the words PILI and ‘Ohana exemplify the spirit of this collaboration, which is to foster and strengthen relationships between and within the communities we serve as well as among the PILI ‘Ohana partners.
Keeping with Tradition
PILI ‘Ohana abides by the following Traditional Hawaiian Values:
Aloha |
mutual respect and compassion for others |
Mālama |
reciprocal caring for the physical, spiritual, and emotional aspects of others |
Na‘auao |
seeking knowledge and wisdom for the betterment of humankind |
Pono |
maintaining working harmony between partners and the communities we serve |
Nalu |
flexibility to adapt to unexpected events and circumstances |
Kokua |
lending our expertise to each other to meet the programs goals |
Background
The prevalence of overweight and
obesity in the US general population has continued to increase at
alarming rates despite wide spread public health campaigns to curb the
growing epidemic. Overweight (BMI between 25 and 29.9) and obesity (BMI
>=30) rates have increased from 33.1% and 11.6% in 1990 to 37% and
22.1% in 2002, respectively.
Currently, it is estimated that 25.1% of the US adult population has obesity and 36.5% are overweight. However, there is considerable variability in obesity/overweight by region and race/ethnicity.
Among Pacific-based populations such as Native Hawaiians, Samoans, Filipinos, and other Pacific Island Peoples, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has been also rising with an estimated 7-11% increase since 2003.
For Native Hawaiians and Filipinos the prevalence of overweight/obesity (BMI >=25) is 75.2% and 55%, respectively.
The prevalence of obesity alone among Samoans and Micronesians as a group has been estimated to be as high as 65.6% and 65.1%.
Not surprisingly, medical complications associated with overweight and obesity, such as diabetes, heart disease, and some forms of cancer, loom large as a major health problem that threatens to overwhelm US health care resources.
Overweight and or obese individuals, especially among minority and low socioeconomic sub-populations, are particularly at high-risk for developing associated medical complications and are more likely to develop them at a younger age.
Promising evidence-based interventions aimed at preventing the medical complications of excess weight, such as the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), strongly suggest that even modest weight loss can prevent or postpone the onset of Type 2 diabetes mellitus.
What's Your BMI?
Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a person's weight and height. BMI is an indicator of how much body fat a person has, and is often used to evaluate the risk for heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
Enter your weight and height to calculate your BMI.
The BMI reference chart will help you to determine if you are at risk.
| BMI CHART | |
| You are: | If your BMI is: |
| Underweight | Less than 18.5 |
| Normal | 18.5 - 24.9 |
| Overweight | 25 - 29.9 |
| Obese | 30 - 39.9 |
| Extremely Obese | More than 40 |