Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Political Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
J Epidemiol Community Health. 2020 Jan;74(1):64-70. doi: 10.1136/jech-2018-211856. Epub 2019 Oct 29.
Previous research association increased levels of cultural continuity and decreased rates of youth suicide in First Nations communities. We investigate the relationship between cultural continuity and self-rated health looking specifically at Inuit living in the Canadian Arctic.
The Arctic Supplements of the Aboriginal Peoples Survey from years 2001 and 2006 were appended to explore the relationship between various measures of cultural continuity and self-rated health. These measures include access to government services in an Aboriginal language, Inuit cultural variables, community involvement and governance. Literature related to Inuit social determinants of health and health-related behaviours were used to build the models.
All measures of cultural continuity were shown to have a positive association with self-rated health for Inuit participants. Background and other control variables influenced the strength of the association but not the direction of the association. Access to services in an Aboriginal language, harvesting activities and government satisfaction were all significantly related to the odds of better health outcomes. Finally, the study contributes a baseline from a known data horizon against which future studies can assess changes and understand future impacts of changes.
The Canadian government and other agencies should address health inequalities between Inuit and non-Inuit people through programmes designed to foster cultural continuity at a community level. Providing access to services in an Aboriginal language is a superficial way of promoting cultural alignment of these services; however, more inclusion of Inuit traditional knowledge is needed to have a positive influence on health.
先前的研究表明，文化延续性的提高与原住民社区青年自杀率的降低有关。我们调查了文化延续性与自我评估健康之间的关系，特别关注生活在加拿大北极地区的因纽特人。
在 2001 年和 2006 年的原住民调查的北极附录中，增加了对各种文化延续性指标与自我评估健康之间关系的探索。这些措施包括以原住民语言获得政府服务、因纽特文化变量、社区参与和治理。与因纽特人社会决定因素和健康相关行为有关的文献被用于构建模型。
所有文化延续性指标都显示出与因纽特参与者的自我评估健康呈正相关。背景和其他控制变量影响了关联的强度，但不影响关联的方向。以原住民语言获得服务、捕捞活动和政府满意度都与更好的健康结果的几率显著相关。最后，该研究提供了一个已知数据基准，未来的研究可以根据该基准评估变化，并了解未来变化的影响。
加拿大政府和其他机构应通过旨在促进社区层面文化延续性的方案，解决因纽特人与非因纽特人之间的健康不平等问题。以原住民语言提供服务是促进这些服务文化一致性的一种表面方式；然而，需要更多地纳入因纽特传统知识，才能对健康产生积极影响。
