Following up
Research News checks in with a researcher who has been exploring obesity rates in aboriginal communities.
In recent years, news stories have been sounding the alarm over a growing epidemic of childhood obesity among North American children. Couch-potato lifestyles and high-fat, high-sugar diets are repeatedly blamed.
Disturbingly, in certain Cree populations of northern Quebec, rates of childhood obesity have been observed that are significantly higher than average. But are the same factors driving this problem?
AHFMR Population Health Investigator Dr. Noreen Willows explored this question in the summer of 2003. Using a community-based approach, she interviewed elders, members of band councils, local physicians, and public-health officers in three Cree communities in northern Quebec.
A major theme among elders was that today's children have so few opportunities to experience Cree traditional life. "They talk about the health-promoting aspects of living in the bush," Dr. Willows recounts. "It promoted physical activity." Another theme was that the children are eating high-fat food that has low nutritional value. The elders frequently mentioned that traditional Cree foods were essential for health. By not eating those foods, they feel that their children's health has been jeopardized.
While the pragmatic elders knew that a complete return to a traditional Cree lifestyle was impossible, they clearly identified a number of factors within the communities that, by promoting a more traditional lifestyle, could play a role in reversing the trend toward obesity. "Because of the relative isolation of the communities in northern Quebec, children learn Cree first. It's spoken at home and they're aware that language unites them as a people," says Dr. Willows. Children also participate in bush camps, such as the spring goose break, where they're taught to hunt migrating geese.
In the near future, Dr. Willows hopes to begin the next phase of her research—developing culturally appropriate ways to reduce obesity rates in Cree children. But first she wants to finish her analysis of the rich body of interview material she has gathered. "I hope it will lend a more sophisticated understanding of health issues in Aboriginal communities, and will de-stigmatize some of these problems by showing how complex and how rooted in history they are. It will give them a voice."