Community-Based Research Project: SCORE! explores team insights in the latest Global Health Collective Podcast episode

The SCORE! Project

In Spring 2021, the SCORE! Project was launched and is currently working with community members and community partners in Riverdale, Hamilton. In collaboration with the Riverdale community, the SCORE! team is co-designing a multi-component intervention with a focus on physical activity, healthy eating education, and nature-based aspects in an effort to promote health and well-being.

A key plan of action is the “connecting to nature” intervention, which seeks to nurture a love for the outdoors, gardening, and hiking among new immigrant families with the goal of promoting healthy active living to prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes.

“We are thrilled to be working on this project where health equity meets public health, which has the potential to help newcomer families optimize the health trajectories of their children,” Sonia Anand, acting Associate V-P of Equity and Inclusion.

Why a healthy active living intervention?

Behavioural risk factors such as unhealthy eating and physical inactivity lead to a pathway towards developing type 2 diabetes, which is a significant contributor to cardiovascular disease. These behavioural habits contribute to a considerable risk for establishing and sustaining chronic diseases.

Interventions that positively impact healthy behaviours in children and young adults have the potential to reduce negative outcomes across the lifespan. Also, the dietary and physical activity adaptations among new immigrants to Canada especially among those in low-income settings often have a predictable maladaptive pattern. The development of the “connecting to nature” intervention considers the built environment, social, and cultural norms as well as individual and family level determinants of new immigrant families.

The Global Health Collective Podcast

Doctoral Global Health student and graduate of the MSc in Global Health program, Shania Bhopa, is a member of the SCORE! team. Looking forward to continuing her role on the team, Shania grows alongside of the project while working on the evidence reviews, knowledge translation, community advisory board operations and more!  Also, host of the Global Health Collective Podcast, she had the chance to chat with members of the SCORE! team in the most recent episode.

Throughout the episode, the SCORE! team discusses how they are engaging community partners and families located in Riverdale, Hamilton to ensure all voices and perspectives are integrated into the pilot interventions.

“The project offers an accurate picture of the complexities of creating partnerships but also maintaining them. In many ways it is iterative and requires a lot of attention and nurturing,” remarks Andrea Baumann, V-P, Faculty of Health Sciences (Global Health), “We have seen from this project the diversity of the community and partners contributing unique perspectives in the design of the interventions”.

Community-based research has shown increased success in uptake and sustainability within a focused population. SCORE! aims to weave together theory-based approaches, evidence-informed practice, and lived experiences to produce a relevant and accessible population-based intervention.

In the episode, the SCORE! team members share the next steps, hopeful new activities, and research initiatives that will be introduced this summer/early fall 2023.  Take a listen here and be sure to listen to the remaining episodes on global health and more on the Global Health Collective Podcast.

Score website: https://okanagan.mcmaster.ca/score/

Podcast link https://open.spotify.com/episode/5QT5BC3ou3q0agVraWh1P9?si=27242e4779e442b6

GHC: https://www.instagram.com/theglobalhealthcollective/