Northern and Aboriginal Health

SPHERU research in the area of northern and Aboriginal health is situated in the global context of Indigenous frameworks and indicators discourse, and broadly framed through the lens of culture as a health determinant. Several factors are evident:

• Indigenous peoples around the world continue to experience disproportionate health burdens, with large disparities in most social and health indicators.
• Inequalities in health status between Indigenous and mainstream populations are more pronounced in some regions of the world than others, and assessment is often hampered by lack of comprehensive data on Indigenous health status.
• In order to measure progress toward reductions in health disparities, it is essential that quality Indigenous health data exist. This requires conceptual level progress in the area of culturally relevant definitions of health, accompanied by the development of indicators suitable to these new frameworks. Both of these areas of research are unfolding in a national and global context that explicitly recognizes culture as a health determinant, but is limited in its application by our poorly developed understanding of what that means and of how culture intersects with other, better defined determinants such as income, social status, education, and employment.

SPHERU's work

We recognize the particular importance of culture in the health of Aboriginal people in Canada. Our projects explore the role of culture in population health by looking at culture as a determinant of health, by considering culturally relevant definitions of health, and through refining cultural identity as an indicator of health.