A review of health and wellness studies involving Inuit of Manitoba and Nunavut

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this review is to summarise past Inuit health and wellness studies in Manitoba and the Kivalliq region of Nunavut to provide a snapshot of the types of studies available and identify the gaps in knowledge. Research to date has largely been disease-based and often provides comparisons between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Distinct Inuit experiences are rarely written about from an Inuit perspective. However, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national organisation of Inuit in Canada, and Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada have been leaders in strengths-based community research and publications that address priorities determined by the Inuit, including the 2018 Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami document National Inuit Strategy on Research (132).

KEYWORDS:

• Inuit
• health and wellness
• Manitoba
• chronic conditions and diseases
• population and preventative health
• the determinants of Inuit health
• Nunavut
• environmental health
• food security and nutrition-based health
• community directed research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

¹ Language is an important component of culture, which is included in the framework of social determinants of health [6], and Inuit living in Inuit Nunangat are more likely to speak an Inuit language, such as Inuktitut, than those living outside the region.

² These areas are: focused and active approach to suicide prevention; strengthened continuum of mental health services; youth skills; suicide prevention training; research on suicide and suicide prevention; communication and information sharing; healthy development in early childhood; and community development activities.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research [Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research (NEIHR) Development Grant].