Canada. Inuit Health Conditions a Cause for Concern
Inuit adults were less likely to report excellent or very good health than were their counterparts in the total Canadian population, according to a survey by Statistics Canada released on December 3, 2008. Only 50% of Inuit adults stated that their health was excellent or very good in 2006.
There were no differences between Inuit men and women.
Inuit in all age groups were less likely than people in the general population to have seen or talked on the phone with a medical doctor in the 12 months prior to the survey. About 56% of Inuit adults had contact with a medical doctor, compared with 79% in the general population (after standardizing for age).
In most Inuit communities, the point of first contact with the medical system was with a nurse. In the year prior to the survey, 7 in 10 Inuit adults living in Inuit communities had contact with a nurse.
The 2006 Census enumerated 50,485 Inuit living in Canada; over three-quarters lived in the area known as Inuit Nunaat, which refers to the four Inuit regions across the North. The region with the largest Inuit population was the territory of Nunavut, home to 24,635 Inuit, about half of the total Inuit population.
The Inuit population is young, with a median age of 22 years, compared with 39 years for the total Canadian population. In 2006, 12% of the Inuit population was aged 4 and under, more than twice the 5% for the total population.
Health of Inuit adults
About 10% of Inuit adults in Inuit Nunaat stated there was a time they required health care but did not receive it, about the same percentage as for Inuit living outside Inuit Nunaat. However, reasons for not receiving care were different.
For Inuit outside Inuit Nunaat, the most frequent reason given was long wait times. In Inuit Nunaat, this was also one of the most frequent responses, although a similar percentage of respondents also cited the lack of availability of care in the area, or at the time required, and some did not provide a reason.
Some Inuit are required to leave their communities for extended periods to receive health care. About 5% of Inuit adults in Inuit Nunaat stated there had been a time during the year before the survey when they had been temporarily away from their home for one month or more due to illness.
Chronic health conditions most commonly reported by Inuit adults were
arthritis/rheumatism (13%) and high blood pressure (12%). These proportions were about the same as those for the total Canadian population after age standardizing.
About 58% of Inuit adults smoked on a daily basis, and another 8% smoked occasionally. The daily rate was over three times the 17% among all adults in Canada, according to the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey.
Health of Inuit children
Nearly three-quarters (74%) of Inuit children aged 6 to 14 were reported to be in excellent or very good health, about the same proportion as in 2001.
Over one-third (35%) of Inuit children aged 6 to 14 had contact with a pediatrician, general practitioner or family doctor in 2006.
About 59% of Inuit children in Inuit Nunaat were reported to have received dental care, compared with 77% of Inuit children who lived outside Inuit Nunaat. Many communities in Inuit Nunaat do not have a resident dentist. Instead, dentists from southern Canada fly into the communities on an irregular basis.
Among all Inuit children aged 6 to 14, the most widely diagnosed chronic health conditions were ear infections, allergies and asthma.
Food insecurity among Inuit children
About 30% of Inuit children had experienced "food insecurity" at some point. That is, they had gone hungry because the family had run out of food or money to buy food. This proportion was highest (39%) among children in the territory of Nunavut.
Of the group of children who had experienced hunger, this was not a regular occurrence for 33% of them. However, for over 4 in 10 of these children, this happened every month, or even more often.
Harvesting country food
"Country food", eaten by Inuit for thousands of years, still makes up a large part of the diet of many Inuit. It includes seal, whale, caribou, fish and berries.
In Inuit Nunaat, 65% of Inuit lived in homes where at least half of the meat and fish eaten was country food.
Despite challenges associated with hunting and time constraints of work, 68% of adults in Inuit Nunaat reported harvesting country food in 2005.
The majority of Inuit men and women of all ages reported taking part in harvesting activities, but men were more likely to do so than women.
Sharing country food was a common practice in Inuit communities, as about 8 in 10 Inuit adults lived in homes where country food was shared with people in other households.
