title: Understanding Pasifika youth and the obesogenic environment, Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In New Zealand, the burden of obesity is greatest among Pacific people, especially in children and adolescents. We investigated the factors of the obesogenic environment that were indigenous to Pasifika youths' social-cultural context, their food purchasing behaviours, and associated anthropometric measures.
  
  
  METHODS
  An exploratory study of 30 Pasifika youth aged 16-24 years in Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A large proportion of the participants were obese (mean body mass index: 31.0kg/m2; waistto-hip ratio: 0.84; waist-to-height ratio: 0.6), suggesting that the future health and wellbeing trajectory of the studied Pasifika youth is poor. Purchasing behaviours of food and snacks over a 7-day period provided meaningful insights that could be a useful future research tool to examine the role of their physical environment on food access and availability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From this exploratory study, we highlight the following: (i) the future health trajectory of Pasifika youth is poor. Developing the youths' healthy lifestyle knowledge may lend itself to developing culturally relevant intervention programmes; (ii) identifying the enablers and barriers within the Pasifika ontext of an obesogenic environment can provide very useful information; (iii) use of spatial analysis using purchased food receipts adds to the current knowledge base of obesity-related research, although this was an exploratory investigation. We need to address these highlights if we are to reverse the trend of obesity for this population.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University, P O Box 756, Wellington, New Zealand. r.t.firestone@massey.ac.nz.
authors.forename: Ridvan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tupai-Firestone
authors.forename: Hana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tuisano
authors.forename: Moana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manukia
authors.forename: Keawe'aimoku
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kaholokula
authors.forename: Sunia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Foliaki
authors.forename: Te Kani
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Kingi
authors.forename: Rozanne
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kruger
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Breier
authors.forename: Angelique
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: O'Connell
authors.forename: Rozanne
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kruger
authors.forename: Barry
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Borman
authors.forename: Lis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ellison-Loschmann
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand; D009765:Obesity / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D010139:Pacific Islands; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult