Author:
Gittelsohn Joel,Harris Stewart B.,Burris Krista L.,Kakegamic Louisa,Landman Laura T.,Sharma Anjali,Wolever Thomas M. S.,Logan Alexander,Barnie Annette,Zinman Bernard
Abstract
This article presents the results of applied ethnographic research aimed at developing a community-based diabetes prevention program in an isolated Ojibway-Cree community in northern Ontario. Using qualitative techniques, the authors describe diabetes in its sociocultural context and underlying belief systems that affect related activity and dietary behaviors. Local concepts of food and illness are dichotomized into "Indian" and "white man's" groupings, with Indian foods perceived as healthy and white man's foods felt to be unhealthy. Diabetes is believed to result from consumption of white man's "junk foods" (sugar, soda); some believe the disease can be avoided by eating traditional Indian foods such as game animals (moose, beaver, duck). While dietary linkages to diabetes are recognized, physical activity as a means of controlling obesity and decreasing the risk for diabetes is not part of the local ethnomedical model. This information is being used to develop culturally appropriate health education interventions.
Reference57 articles.
1. The prevalence of clinically treated diabetes among Zuni reservation residents.
2. Szathmary Eje: Genetic and environmental risk factors, in Young TK (ed.): Diabetes in the Canadian Native Population: Biocultural Perspectives. Toronto, Canadian Diabetes Association, 1987, pp. 27-66.
3. Diabetes in American Indians and Other Native Populations of the New World
4. The diet of Alaska Native adults: 1987–1988
5. Gohdes D.: Diabetes in North American Indians and Alaska natives, in National Diabetes Data Group: Diabetes in America (2nd ed.). Washington, DC, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases , 1995, pp. 683-702. (NIH Pub. No. 95-1468)
Cited by
58 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献