The Need
Indigenous Peoples in Canada – First Nations, Metis and Inuit – have historically been under-represented in health research. Not only have they not been included in the existing types of diseases and conditions being studied by Canadian researchers, Indigenous Peoples’ own specific health concerns have not been adressed or, in fact, asked of them.
An effort is underway by research organizations, including PHRI, to amend these errors and oversights, using – among other Indigenous-led values and principles – the concept of “nothing about us without us.”
Starting around 2013, PHRI has worked alongside eight First Nations communities across Canada to collect information to:
- Better understand the contextual, environmental, socioeconomic, and biological determinants of differences in health status in harmony with First Nations ways of knowing.
- Assist communities to develop local management strategies for chronic disease
- Investigate how the community-level environment is associated with individual health behaviours and the presence and progression of chronic disease risk factors and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer.