A Comprehensive View of Twenty Years Of Urban Indian Health Published Studies

Context: The success of urban Indian health (UIH) programs and policies lies in the ability and willingness to understand and incorporate urban Indian conditions and traditional practices. This investigation addresses the current lack of UIH published research addressing native cultures, health beliefs and practices as well as its distinct health disparities. Methods: This study analyzed 290 UIH related research studies performed from 1986 to 2006 available at www.pubmed.com. Data analysis included descriptive statistics including frequencies, distributions, univariate and stratified analyses. Results: The majority of the institutions and investigators that work on UIH issues were professionals from universities located in Bemidgi, Nashville, Portland and California regions. Since year 2000, there has been a considerable increase in UIH published research. However, these investigations predominantly addressed a single topic in a very restricted population. Subjects of these investigations mainly relate to cancer, alcohol, mental health, culture and social support. Findings show that these research efforts were mainly performed at the community level with UI women. California, Portland, Bemidgi and Phoenix were the preferred areas to conduct these studies. Conclusions: This is one of the first studies to describe the available published research focused on UIH. Our findings show the lack of funding, research sharing and published studies that would serve as baseline information to develop UIH programs and policies especially among children, males and patient-provider services.