Ensuring that Cook Islands youth understand health monitoring in which they are participants: Linking health monitoring into learning through the Pacific Science for Health Literacy Project

Heimata Herman¹, Karen Tairea², Ina Herrmann³, Celeste Barrett-Watson⁴, Kathleen Wilkie³, Delaney Yaqona⁵ Mark Vickers¹ and Jacquie Bay¹

1. Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, New Zealand; 2. Te Marae Ora, Cook Islands Ministry of Health, Cook Islands; 3. Maraurau o te Pae Api’I, Cook Islands Ministry of Education, Cook Islands; 4. Tereora College, National College of the Cook Islands, Rarotonga, Cook Islands; 5. Nukutere College, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

The Pacific Science for Health Literacy Project is a community-based participatory research collaboration involving Cook Islands Ministries of Education and Health, and the Liggins Institute. Based on principles of multi-sectoral partnership, the project utilises innovative learning and teaching strategies to support opportunities present in the Cook Islands National Curriculum to facilitate youth empowerment in relation to noncommunicable disease (NCD) risk.

The project team identified in 2013 that while health monitoring should ideally be a part of project evaluation, the education sector and wider community were not at that stage ready to embrace this. The presentation of baseline nutrition data to participating teachers during 2015, combined with teacher observation of increased levels of student engagement, and increasing teacher understanding of the relevant health issues resulted in a joint decision to incorporate basic anthropometric and metabolic profiles in baseline and on-going post-intervention evaluation from 2016.

To support empowerment, health monitoring must be an active learning experience. To facilitate this the project team have produced a resource explaining the health monitoring checks, alongside relevant NCD risk information. All Year 9 students will receive this booklet to record their health profile annually during secondary schooling. A website provides information for parents and professional development will support all teachers in participating schools to understand the profiles. Health and PE teachers will incorporate exploration of the profiles in the cross-curricular learning modules associated with the project. Public health will ensure that appropriate follow-up is available.

We present here the journey that led to this decision, the learning tool and the updated evaluation plan. We hypothesise that these resources will increase youth empowerment, measured via sustained health-promoting actions and gradual health profile improvement. We will test this hypothesis within the 2016 Year 9 cohort in Rarotonga. 95% of parents have provided consent for student participation.

Herman, H., Tairea, K., Herrmann, U., Barrett-Watson, C., Wilkie, K., Yaqona, D., Vickers, M.H., & Bay, J.L. (2016). Ensuring that Cook Islands youth understand health monitoring in which they are participants: Linking health monitoring into learning through the Pacific Science for Health Literacy Project. The Annual Cook Islands Health Conference 2016, Rarotonga, Cook Islands.