Feasibility of Healthy Beverages Policies in American Samoa and Federated States of Micronesia: Water and Coconut Water Only Community Interventions.

American Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) are two small Pacific Island nations that have some of the highest noncommunicable disease (NCD) mortality rates in the world. Supported by church leaders to address obesity as an NCD risk factor, American Samoa, and Chuuk and Kosrae States of FSM selected the implementation of healthy beverages as a nutrition intervention through a water- and coconut water-only pledge in church events. The consumption of water and coconut water was tracked. Across 105 church events in the three jurisdictions, the count of water bottles before and after events decreased from 142.8 to 22.3, the number of coconuts before and after events decreased from 19.6 to 1.2, and cups of water before and after events decreased from 52.9 to 7.6. The promotion of healthy beverages in church settings holds promise in the Pacific as a feasible, accessible, and culturally responsive nutrition approach, given limited access to other nutritional alternatives, e.g., fresh fruits and vegetables. Supplemental health promotion messaging to maintain knowledge and attitudes about healthy is recommended for future scaling up.

A Socio-Ecological Framework for Cancer Control in the Pacific: A Community Case Study of the US Affiliated Pacific Island Jurisdictions 1997-2017.

The United States Affiliated Pacific Island Jurisdictions (USAPIJ) are politically associated to the United States (US) as US Territories (Guam, American Samoa), a US Commonwealth (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), and as sovereign nations linked to the US through Compacts of Free Association [Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), Republic of Palau (ROP)]. Cervical cancer incidence in the RMI is the highest in the world, mammography services are not available in the FSM and only Guam has on-island oncology services. Cancer risk factors such as obesity, tobacco, and Hepatitis B are prevalent. Twelve years of nuclear testing in the RMI adds to the cancer burden. A community-based, multi-national coalition with multi-system external partners the Pacific Regional Cancer Control Partnership (PRCP) was developed to address cancer prevention and control in the USAPIJ. Through the PRCP, local cancer coalitions, a regional cancer registry, 12 years of regional cancer control plans, and cancer prevention programs and research has been implemented. Methods: The PRCP is the subject of this community case study. The PRCP is analyzed through a socio-ecological theoretical framework to contextualize its typology, building blocks, and management. The respective roles and work of each partner and organization will be described and aligned with the levels of the socio-ecological framework. Results: The USAPIJs evolved a community-focused internal and external regional cancer prevention and control network over 20 years. The function and structure of the PRCP fits within a socio-ecological framework for cancer control. An adaptive management strategy has been used within the PRCP to manage its multi-national, multi-level, and multi-system partners. Conclusion: The PRCP has been able to advance cancer prevention and control programs with a community-centric model that functions in a multi-national, multi-cultural, low-resource, geographically dispersed environment over the last 20 years. The PRCP operates with a structure and management style that is consistent with a socio-ecological framework for cancer control. This case study provides a blueprint for the PRCP organizational structure and a mechanism for its function. The PRCP concept, a community-centric model for cancer control in multi-national resource-limited environments, may be scaled to other global environments.

Cancer risk reduction in the US Affiliated Pacific Islands: Utilizing a novel policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) approach.

BACKGROUND: The Health Directors of the US Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) declared a State of Emergency due to epidemic proportions of lifestyle diseases: cancer, obesity and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in 2010. This paper describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a USAPI policy, system and environment (PSE) approach to address lifestyle behaviors associated with cancer and other NCDs. METHODS: Each of USAPI jurisdictions applied the PSE approach to tobacco and nutrition interventions in a local institution, faith based, or community setting. A participatory community engagement process was utilized to: identify relevant deleterious health behaviors in the population, develop PSE interventions to modify the context in which the behavior occurs in a particular setting, implement the PSE intervention through five specified activities, and evaluate the activities and behavior change associated with the intervention. RESULTS: PSE interventions have been implemented in all USAPI jurisdictions. Current human and financial resources have been adequate to support the interventions. Process and behavior change evaluations have not been completed and is ongoing. Personnel turnover and maintaining the intervention strategy in response due to shifting community demands has been the biggest challenge in one site. CONCLUSION: From 2014 through 2016 the PSE approach has been used to implement PSE interventions in all USAPI jurisdictions. The intervention evaluations have not been completed. The PSE intervention is novel and has the potential to be a scalable methodology to prevent cancer and modify NCD risk in the USAPI and small states.

Unmet Needs of Asian American and Pacific Islander Cancer Survivors.

In the USA, cancer is the leading cause of death for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), but little is known about the unmet needs of AAPI cancer survivors, especially from a national perspective. Using a community-based participatory research approach, we partnered with the Asian and Pacific Islander National Cancer Survivors Network and the Asian American Cancer Support Network to design and conduct a cross-sectional survey to understand the unmet needs of a national sample of AAPI cancer survivors. We assessed unmet needs in 10 domains: day-to-day activities, financial expenses, emotional concerns, medical treatment, cancer information, home care, nutrition, physical concerns, family relationships, and spirituality. We also assessed self-reported measures related to quality of life. This national sample of AAPI cancer survivors included people from 14 states and two territories who had been diagnosed with a broad range of cancers, including cancer of the breast, ovary/uterus/cervix, prostate, blood, and other sites. Over 80 % reported at least one unmet need. Participants reported an average of 8.4 unmet needs, spanning an average of 3.9 domains. Most commonly reported were unmet needs pertaining to physical concerns (66 %), day-to-day activities (52 %), and emotional concerns (52 %). This is the first report of unmet needs in a national sample of AAPI cancer survivors with a range of different cancer types. It describes the areas of greatest need and points to the importance of devoting more resources to identifying and addressing unmet needs for the underserved population of AAPI cancer survivors.

Policy, System, and Environment Strategies to Promote Physical Activity and Healthy Food Sources to Address Guam's Disparate Non-Communicable Disease Burden.

In 2013, the Guam Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Consortium, Department of Public Health and Social Services, and University of Hawaii collaborated to address Guam's NCD burden. This field report describes their efforts to implement policy, system, and environmental interventions through the worksite wellness and community garden programs.