Abstract
As the Ministry of Health is updating its eating guidelines for children and young people, two new publications describe a co-creation process with rangatahi Māori to develop and disseminate the Manora Rangatahi Guidelines for Eating and Wellbeing.
Using wānanga processes, 17 rangatahi incorporated international guideline exemplars, expert opinion, te ao Māori concepts, and structured peer feedback into the development of 10 healthy, sustainable eating messages and 10 wellbeing messages (exercise, sleep, screen time, respect, cyber safety). Most messages were invitational (‘Let’s try to…’), qualitative (eg no specified serving sizes or frequencies), explanatory (providing reasons) and holistic in a Māori sense – incorporating concepts of mauri, whānau, and tūrangawaewae.
Rangatahi also co-designed a 22-week social media campaign and starred in the video clips. The campaign achieved more than 1.48 million impressions and over 19,000 engagements (eg, likes, comments, sharing).
To achieve relevance and credibility, eating and wellbeing guidelines need to be co-designed with target audiences.