Workshops: Examining the Relationship Between Culture, Stress, and Health in Two Inuit Communities Through Community Based Participatory Research

健康状况不佳及其与社会和经济压力的关系是北美土著人民的标志，特别是那些生活在北极的土著人民。对北美因努伊特人进行的50年学术研究表明，北极地区社会经济和环境的迅速变化导致健康状况下降和健康差距扩大，这表明需要采取更有效的健康干预措施。尽管进行了数十年的流行病学和公共卫生研究，并不断努力改善这些社区的健康状况，但健康状况不佳、死亡率较高以及随之而来的社会问题仍然远远高于北美其他地方。正在进行的卫生干预措施已被证明是无效的，这表明需要新的、基于当地的和文化上适当的方法。该项目聚焦于当地的透镜，研究北极居民如何理解和体验健康和压力，以及他们如何优先考虑健康问题，使其结果对制定导致健康和福祉持久改善的方案和政策至关重要。该研究项目将在Ulukhaktok，Inuvialuit定居区和Kangiqsujuaq社区进行，努纳维克将制定基于社区的前瞻性研究设计，通过因纽特人的直接投入，解决社区对健康和压力的关切。根据调查人员在这些社区工作的数十年经验，该项目非常适合共同制作的方法，既可以有效利用资源，又可以与社区成员建立必要的融洽关系，以开发满足学术和社区需求的研究项目。调查人员将前往这两个社区与社区成员举行小型会议，为调查这些社区的健康差距和社会压力经验制定研究议程。这些会议将征求社区参与和投入，以确定与健康有关的研究优先事项，制定与地方治理合作的框架，并确定提高地方研究能力和制定可持续解决方案的机制，以改善北极社区的健康。这项研究的成果将是一个全面发展的研究项目，其中有关健康和压力的知识是与重点社区共同产生的，然后保留对研究的执行和结果的重要投入。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Poor health and its relationship to social and economic stress are hallmarks for Native peoples across North America, especially for those living in the Arctic. Five decades of academic research among Inuit peoples in North America has established a trend of declining health and increasing health disparities that corresponds with the rapid socioeconomic and environmental changes occurring in the Arctic regions, indicating the need for more effective health interventions. Despite decades of epidemiological and public health research and increasing efforts to improve health in these communities, poor health, higher mortality, and attendant social concerns remain far higher than elsewhere in North America. Ongoing health interventions have proven ineffective, suggesting new, locally-based, and culturally appropriate approaches are needed. This project focuses a local lens on how Arctic residents understand and experience health and stress and how they prioritize health problems, making its outcomes critical for developing programs and policies that lead to lasting improvements in health and well-being.This research project will be conducted in the communities of Ulukhaktok, Inuvialuit Settlement Region and Kangiqsujuaq, Nunavik to develop Community Based Participatory Research designs addressing community concerns about health and stress with direct Inuit input. Drawing upon the investigators' decades of experience working in these communities, this project is well-suited for a co-produced approach, allowing for both for efficient use of resources and the necessary rapport to work with community members to develop a research project that meets both academic and community needs. The investigators will travel to both communities to conduct mini-conferences with community members to set a research agenda for investigating health disparities and the experience of social stress in these communities. These meetings will solicit community involvement and input in targeting research priorities related to health, generate frameworks for working collaboratively with local governance, and identify mechanisms for improving local research capacity and developing sustainable solutions for improving health in Arctic communities. The outcome of this research will be a fully developed research project in which knowledge about health and stress is co-produced with the community of focus, which then retains significant input into the execution and outcome of the research.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.