Obesity Education among American Indians: Evaluating a Culturally Appropriate Approach to Health Awareness

ABSTRACT

This research focused on a key health issue that significantly affects American Indian community – obesity. We sought to understand how American Indians perceive culturally appropriate an ethnic identity education about obesity as compared with the generic education that is not sensitive to the ethnic identity of American Indians. The project utilizes a survey based observational design where a sample of American Indians is measured for their preference of educational flyers showing American Indian imagery versus generic/Caucasian imagery. The perceived obesity among American Indians was compared with actual bodyweight levels. The American Indian community strongly prefers education that is supported by culturally appropriate imagery. This result provides support to the hypothesis that cultural identity plays a vital role in health education among American Indians and can be an effective strategy in future efforts.

KEYWORDS:

• American Indian
• obesity
• body image
• body perception
• cultural identification