Objectives. We present regional patterns and trends in all-cause mortality and leading causes of death in American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs).Methods. US National Death Index records were linked with Indian Health Service (IHS) registration records to identify AI/AN deaths misclassified as non-AI/AN. We analyzed temporal trends for 1990 to 2009 and comparisons between non-Hispanic AI/AN and non-Hispanic White persons by geographic region for 1999 to 2009. Results focus on IHS Contract Health Service Delivery Area counties in which less race misclassification occurs.Results. From 1990 to 2009 AI/AN persons did not experience the significant decreases in all-cause mortality seen for Whites. For 1999 to 2009 the all-cause death rate in CHSDA counties for AI/AN persons was 46% more than that for Whites. Death rates for AI/AN persons varied as much as 50% among regions. Except for heart disease and cancer, subsequent ranking of specific causes of death differed considerably between AI/AN and White per...

https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdfplus/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301798

Leading Causes of Death and All-Cause Mortality in American Indians and Alaska Natives

▪ Abstract An evolutionary perspective is used to elucidate the etiology of the current epidemic of type 2 diabetes estimated at 151 million people. Our primate legacy, fossil hominid, and hunting-gathering lifestyles selected for adaptive metabolically thrifty genotypes and phenotypes are rendered deleterious through modern lifestyles that increase energy input and reduce output. The processes of modernization or globalization include the availability and abundance of calorically dense/low-fiber/high-glycemic foods and the adoption of sedentary Western lifestyles, leading to obesity among both children and adults in developed and developing countries. These trends are projected to continue for a number of decades.

Dietary, evolutionary, and modernizing influences on the prevalence of type 2 diabetes

The public realm is defined as those nonprivate sectors or areas of urban settlements in which individuals in co-presence tend to be personally unknown or only categorically known to one another. T...

SOCIAL LIFE IN THE PUBLIC REALM: A Review

The association between acculturation to a Western lifestyle and prevalence of diabetes was examined among 8,006 Japanese-American men in Hawaii with varying degrees of exposure to traditional Japanese social and cultural lifestyles in 1965-1968. A reduced prevalence of diabetes was observed among the men who had retained a more Japanese lifestyle. These men also reported higher levels of physical activity and consumed more carbohydrates and less fat and animal protein in their diet. An inverse association between diabetes and being born in Japan was observed independent of age, body mass index, physical activity, and percentages of calories from fat or carbohydrates (odds ratios = 0.67 and 0.66, 95% confidence intervals 0.49-0.93 and 0.48-0.91, respectively). The number of total years lived in Japan was inversely associated with prevalent diabetes after controlling for age, body mass index, and physical activity (odds ratio = 0.81, 95% confidence interval 0.68-0.96). Current Oriental diet (compared with Western diet) was inversely associated with prevalent diabetes after controlling for age, body mass index, and physical activity (odds ratio = 0.71, 95% confidence interval 0.50-0.98). These findings suggest that living a Japanese lifestyle is associated with a reduced prevalence of diabetes.

/pdf/acculturation-and-prevalence-of-diabetes-among-japanese-25qnzss04y.pdf

Acculturation and Prevalence of Diabetes among Japanese-American Men in Hawaii

In this essay we take a deliberately provocative stance in assessing the utility of the accreditation process in relation to the strategic decision making of business schools given increasing amounts of environmental turbulence, competitiveness, and potentially discontinuous change. We argue that the core process characteristics of accreditation are not well suited for the new competitive terrain that business schools face and may act as impediments for effective adaptation. We conclude by making suggestions for accredited schools, agencies, and researchers.

Is accreditation good for the strategic decision making of traditional business schools

As a physical embodiment of modernity, the prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome (MetS) among Native Americans reflects their body's biological response to social and cultural structures that routinize daily behaviors and contain their physical body. This article explains why Native Americans were one of the earliest populations manifesting this epidemic. Ethnohistorical methods identify the conjuncture of chronic behaviors among Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache of Oklahoma that promote inactivity, overnutrition, and psychosocial stresses. Correspondence and primary documents of Federal Indian Agents who managed the reservation food rations and annuity systems beginning in the 1860s, details a culture history of nutrition and food technologies that standardized and established the unhealthy modern diet that continues among Native Americans today. By identifying structural chronicities affecting specific populations and life situations, policies and interventions can be more effective in promoting positive changes for reducing the global pandemic of diabetes and MetS.

Native American embodiment of the chronicities of modernity: reservation food, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome among the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache.

Adiposity or longevity: which factor accounts for the increase in type II diabetes mellitus when populations acculturate to an industrial technology?

Global Marketing of Indigenous Culture: Discovering Native America with Lee Tiger and the Florida Miccosukee.

A survey of 60 rural, 62 urban Alaska women (64% Alaska Native) indicated positive dietary and lifestyle habits. Diets were characterized by boiled meats, high intakes of omega-3 fish, sea mammals and few desserts. Food insecurity reported by 39% rural and 7% of urban. Hunger was reported by 16% of rural and 5% of urban women. Traditional activities were walking, harvesting fish and picking berries. One third of calories came from non-traditional sugared and fruit juice beverages. Few respondents reported chronic diseases. Nutrition and health educational interventions in Alaska Native communities should reinforce existing positive lifestyle habits, involve Elders and tribal leaders, and incorporate Native values, customs and traditions.

Food Customs of Alaska Women of Childbearing Age: The Alaska WIC Healthy Moms Survey

Big Moon Peyotism was introduced in the 1880s to the Delaware, Osage and Quapaw of Northeast Oklahoma by John Wilson, a Delaware‐Caddo from Southwest Oklahoma. This form of Peyotism and the Little Moon ritual developed by the Apache, Kiowa, and Comanche of Southwest Oklahoma formed the basis of the two major variations of this religion as practiced by Native Americans throughout North America. An ethnographic and historic comparison of these religious traditions in Northeast Oklahoma presents these as health care delivery systems and highlights the importance of health care as a factor in the acceptance and persistence of Peyotism.

Dennis Wiedman

Papers

Native American embodiment of the chronicities of modernity: reservation food, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome among the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache.

Adiposity or longevity: which factor accounts for the increase in type II diabetes mellitus when populations acculturate to an industrial technology?

Global Marketing of Indigenous Culture: Discovering Native America with Lee Tiger and the Florida Miccosukee.

Food Customs of Alaska Women of Childbearing Age: The Alaska WIC Healthy Moms Survey

Big and Little Moon Peyotism as health care delivery systems