Diabetes and Canada's aboriginal peoples: the need for primary prevention.
The high prevalence of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) in Canada's native communities corresponds with high diabetes prevalence rates in other populations of indigenous peoples that have undergone changes associated with acculturation. Behavioural risk factors can be particularly amenable to public health action. There exists a need to develop, implement and test in collaboration with native people, interventions aimed at reducing the incidence and impact of NIDDM, by reducing the risk of its onset, and by early detection and treatment. Intervention programmes should be conceived with sensitivity to the overall health, social, economic, educational and cultural environment within a community. Although this review focuses specifically on diabetes in Canada, many of the points relating to the need for primary prevention of the disease will be appropriate in other situations.
Daniel
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M
Department of Health Care and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Gamble
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D
D000069:Acculturation; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015438:Health Behavior; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007198:Indians, North American; D015995:Prevalence; D011322:Primary Prevention / Q000379:methods*; D011634:Public Health; D016746:Transcultural Nursing