Tuakana-teina peer education programme to help Māori elders enhance wellbeing and social connectedness.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateThe project was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee (Health), University of Waikato (2019#81) following the guidelines and regulations in the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent to participate from all participants was obtained in writing after they reviewed an information sheet. Consent for publicationNot applicable. Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests."

"Funding The project was funded by the Ageing Well National Science Challenge, New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (18566SUB1953); Brendan Hokowhitu (PI), John Oetzel and Rangimahora Reddy (Co-PIs). The authors maintain sole responsibility for the research design, data collection, data analysis, and interpretation of the findings. The project underwent peer review by the funding body."

"This project is guided by the He Pikinga Waiora (Enhancing Wellbeing) Implementation Framework []. This framework centres Kaupapa Māori [, ], a culturally resonant research methodology that normalises Māori tikanga and worldviews and emphasises Māori epistemology. The framework also includes community engagement, systems thinking, culture centredness and integrated knowledge translation. The framework is a participatory approach that utilises the unique strengths of partners, along with seeking ways to partner with end users to create a sustainable programme that is integrated within the larger health and social system []. The research team involves a partnership of six Māori health and social service providers with university researchers. Each provider had one or two community researchers as part of the partnership (funded to 0.50 full-time equivalent). We included two advisory groups to help support our methodology: (1) a Board Advisory Group comprised of the trustees of the original provider, to ensure that the project was kaumātua-led; and (2) an Expert Advisory Group consisting of experts in social and health issues from the aged-care sector. The boards provided stewardship for the project regarding programme development, programme content and all research methods. The project is registered with the Australia New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry (ACTRN126220000316909). Trial Registry: Clinical trial registry: Trial registration: (ACTRN12620000316909). Prospectively registered 06/03/2020, https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=379302&isClinicalTrial=False."