A $2.7 million grant has been awarded to the Department of Native Hawaiian Health at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa's John A. Burns School of Medicine to help Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Peoples — including Samoans, Chuukese and Filipinos — lose weight and keep it off.

Excessive weight is recognized as a significant health threat because it is related to the development of serious illnesses.

The grant, from the National Institutes of Health's Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, allows the Department of Native Hawaiian Health and its community partners to build upon what it learned during a three-year planning grant of $1.3 million, which was awarded in 2005.

The Department and four community groups comprise the "PILI 'Ohana Project: Partnerships to Overcome Obesity Disparities in Hawai'i". Together, the partnership worked to learn what might be effective ways of helping Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Peoples control their weight to reduce their risk for diabetes and other health problems.

Over the next five years, the $2.7 million dollars in new funding will allow the Department and its community partners to complete a more definitive study on weight loss maintenance and interventions, a according to a news release on the grant.