Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115439

Janet K. Smylie, MD MPH, Department of Community Health and Epidemiolgy/Indigenous Peoples Health Research Centre, University of Saskatchewan/First Nations University, College of Medicine, B103 Health Sciences Blvd., 107 Wiggins Road, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E5, Canada, 1-306-966-1656, jk.smylie@sasktel.net

Rationale: Striking inequities persist between the health status of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in North America. Public health strategies to amend inequities have met with limited success. Drawing on the work of Indigenous scholars, we assert that one major reason for this failure is that externally imposed strategies rarely reconcile biomedical and social science ways of knowing with local knowledge systems and local understandings of health and illness.

Goal: The development, implementation, and evaluation of Indigenous models of knowledge translation for health sciences research in the context of Indigenous communities.

Methods: Multi-method participatory action research case studies with three Aboriginal communities in Canada. Baseline qualitative assessment of existing systems of health information dissemination and use through focus groups and key informant interviews. Customized design, implementation, and evaluation of specific public health interventions in each partner community. Evaluation methods include focus groups, key informant interviews, and questionnaires such as CHIP-AE.

Results: Baseline consultations generated distinct and striking data about health information sources and dissemination strategies, decision-making processes, locally relevant concepts of health, local health services and programs, community structures, and mechanisms of interface with non-community systems. The participatory research approach successfully engaged community partners in the development and implementation of customized public health interventions. Evaluation of the impact of these interventions on specific health outcomes is ongoing.

Conclusion: Participatory models of health information dissemination and uptake based on local systems of health and health knowledge effectively engaged key community health stakeholders in the planning and implementation of customized public health interventions.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusions of the session, the participant will be able to

• Recognize the need to customize Indigenous public health interventions to local systems of knowledge and health.
• Describe a participatory action research process that elicits local Indigenous patterns of health information dissemination and use and engages Indigenous community partners in the design, implementation, and evaluation of customized public health interventions.
• List research methods and evaluation tools that can be effectively employed in partnership with Indigenous communities.
• Apply this new knowledge to their own research, programming, and policy.

Keywords: Native and Indigenous Populations, Public Health Research

Related Web page: www.iphrc.ca/who%20we%20are%20staff.htm

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.