Urban Indians Research Articles

Dietary fatty-acid profile of south Indian adults and its association with type 2 diabetes––CURES 151

Background: Both the quantity and the quality of fat are major determinants of chronic diseases risk. This paper looks at the fatty-acid composition of Indian foods reported in the diets of urban Asian Indians and its association with type 2 diabetes. Materials and Methods: Adults aged 20–80 years (n = 1688) were selected from the Chennai Urban Epidemiological Study. The dietary intake of the study subjects was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. The fatty-acid profile of common foods reported by the population was measured from pooled food samples and substituted in nutrient database for calculation of daily foods, nutrient, and fatty-acid intake. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software. Results: Of the foods tested potato chips and Indian sweet mysorepak had the highest amount of fat 46.7g and 42.2g/100g, respectively, whereas the Indian sweet sweet pongal had the lowest fat of 3.9g/100g. Palmitic acid in saturated fatty acid (SFA), oleic acid in monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA), and linoleic among poly unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) were commonly reported fatty acids in most foods. Dietary fats provided almost 1/4th of the daily caloric intake of the subjects. Compared to national recommendations, the intake of MUFA and α linolenic acid was very low. Higher intake (>median) of calories (%E) from SFA (P = 0.007) and PUFA (P = 0.008) were associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, whereas MUFA (P = 0.017) showed an inverse association. Conclusion: Improvement of the dietary fat profile in our population can be achieved by formulating and propagating guidelines on the selection and appropriate use of cooking oils, and increased consumption of nuts and oilseeds.

Modelling Service Quality Offered by Signalized Intersections from Automobile Users’ Perspective in Urban Indian Context

This article proposes modelling the service quality offered by signalized intersections, nodal focuses in a transportation network, from automobile users’ perspective in the urban Indian context. Indian traffic is generally heterogeneous in nature, which implies non-motorized vehicles and pedestrians share the same space as the motorized vehicles. All possible geometric, traffic, and built-environmental data were collected from 45 diversified signalized intersections located in one of the metropolitan cities of India (Kolkata). Along with these, responses from around 9000 on-street automobile users were gathered seeking socio-demographic information and overall satisfaction scores (ranging from 6 = excellent to 1 = worst). Accordingly, the parameters exerting significant (p < 0.001) influences on the overall satisfaction scores were highlighted by Pearson’s correlation analysis. The arrangement of significant parameters comprised of only six attributes which were quantitative in nature. Exceptionally reliable, however, less erratic automobile level of service (ALOS) models were formulated considering these six variables with the assistance of a unique and widely used artificial intelligence technique in particular, multi-gene genetic programming (MGGP). The model displayed incredible likelihood efficiencies in the present article and delivered a high coefficient of determination (R2) estimations of 0.875 under the prevalent site conditions. The sensitivity analysis of demonstrated attributes showed that traffic volume per effective road width, effect of non-motorized vehicles, and pavement condition index profoundly influenced the ALOS of signalized intersections in the urban Indian context. The vital results of this work would, to a great extent, help the transportation organizers and architects in evaluating the operational efficiencies of signalized intersections and in making efficient resolutions for the better administration of automobile traffic.

Estimation of Thyroid Stimulating Hormone Level in Normal Female School Children in a Semi Urban Indian Town- Kumbakonam Urban Rural Epidemiological Study-KURES-2

Symptoms of thyroid dysfunction are non-specific, yet common and hence screening for abnormalities becomes a necessity. To identify subclinical thyroid dysfunction and offer them the correct medical treatment especially in adolescent female children is an excellent option as a public health prophylactic measure. Hence in this study, we sampled 264 asymptomatic school female children for TSH and found an incidence of 3.4% of high TSH (&gt;5). On the other side, the lower values were found in six (if TSH &lt;0.5) or only two children (if TSH &lt; 0.4). The mean with standard error of TSH values were 2.99 ± 0.567. The fasting status was not complied with, and all were random blood samples. All children with abnormal results were counselled with parents and necessary medical advice given. This prevalence is the lowest among similar studies done in any Asian country which is a new finding in our study. Only one child showed a value of 150 who was given drugs and followed up. We theorize that this lesser incidence may be partly due to the study being done in a delta area of a semiurban town.

Opportunities, Challenges, and Strategies for Engaging Family in Diabetes and Hypertension Management: A Qualitative Study.

Family engagement may improve disease management, yet little is known about this topic as it relates to underrepresented minorities who receive care in low-resource primary care settings. This study aimed to explore family engagement in diabetes and hypertension management at an Urban Indian Health Organization to identify opportunities and challenges, and inform care strategies. We employed semi-structured interviews, genograms, eco-maps, and timelines, among 23 English- and Spanish-speaking American Indian and Latino adults with a dual diagnosis of type 2 diabetes and hypertension and 13 family members. Using thematic analysis, we found that family support is not always available, patients have difficulty sharing medical information, and family often live far away. Conversely, opportunities to leverage included a desire for increased engagement, motivation from the younger generation, prevention within the family, outreach to family members with the same conditions, and learning from elders and ancestors. Implications for programs, clinical care, and research are discussed.

LokSuvidha, Converting Non-customers to Customers: The Saga of Organizational Growth Through Technology

Emerging economies like India has been characterized with a substantial ‘bottom of the pyramid’ (BOP) population. BOP has also been one of the most promising market segments for business growth. Firms serving specifically the BOP customer segment was thus engaged in serving a social cause as well because BOP consumers (a weaker segment of society) got benefited because of their consumption of products or services offered by the business firm. In India, a large section of BOP customers who were economically progressing and becoming the new middle class used two-wheeler automobile to commute for personal as well as business needs. Two-wheeler automobile was lifeline for millions of rural and urban Indians. Two-wheelers were used for both consumptions as well as asset building purposes by Indian consumers. Affordability of two-wheeler had been a big challenge for this section of society. Borrowing from Indian credit institutions has been a very potent method towards owning two-wheelers for this segment. There was a section of BOP customers who were beyond the umbrella of the traditional Indian banking and financial sector. Since the decade of mid-2010s, the Government of India had been working hard to include this part of society into the banking system and had floated multiple social schemes to achieve banking inclusion. LokSuvidha, an Indian financial services start-up was founded by Mr Nimish Laddhad and Mr Kamlesh Laddhad. LokSuvidha developed an unique business model for providing credit to this part of society. LokSuvidha had also deployed cutting-edge technology solutions to build a scalable, profitable working model. However, the founders of LokSuvidha were in a dilemma regarding whether to expand LokSuvidha further in scale or scope or to concentrate only in the extant market base of its operations. This decision was paramount for the founders to be answered to shape the future of LokSuvidha in terms of both market reach and organizational span.

Psychosocial and cultural influences on sleep health in urban American Indian/ Alaskan native adolescents: preliminary results from the nayshaw study

Psychosocial and cultural influences on sleep health in urban American Indian/ Alaskan native adolescents: preliminary results from the nayshaw study

Evaluation of prevalence of hypertension and diabetes and its risk factors in a patients coming to the rural health training centre in district Panvel of Maharashtra

Background: A systematic review done by Anchala et al concluded that one-third of urban adult Indians and close to one fourth of rural adult Indians are hypertensive. Overall prevalence of hypertension (HTN) in India, after weighting the regional population size, was 29.8%. As of 2014, 8.3% of the world’s adult population suffered from diabetes, with low-income countries in Africa and Asia bearing the brunt of this burden. Objectives of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of hypertension and diabetes in patients coming to the rural health training centre (RHTC). To find out the association of selected risk factors with hypertension and diabetes.Methods: It was a cross sectional study conducted in RHTC, Panvel Maharashtra in July 2019 (1 month) with sample size of 300.Results: A total 133 patients had normal BMI, 124 were overweight and 48 were obese Out of total patients, 222 had normal blood pressure, 46 were pre- hypertensive and 32 were hypertensive. 42 patients had random blood glucose level more than 200 mg/dl.Conclusions: There was association of body mass index, age and sex with both hypertension and high blood sugar level whereas association of addiction was present with high blood sugar level.

Prevalence of Hypertension and Comparison between Rural versus Urban Indian Women who had Hypertension during Pregnancy after 24 Months of Follow Up

Prevalence of Hypertension and Comparison between Rural versus Urban Indian Women who had Hypertension during Pregnancy after 24 Months of Follow Up

Suffering Like a Broken Toy

This paper will explore the difficult conversations and places of tension in the lived experience of chronic pain for urban American Indians from a larger study discerning relationships between chronic pain and colonization. A concurrent transformative mixed methods design with in-depth interviews and a survey was used for the larger study. This paper concerns only the qualitative data. Forty self-identified American Indian adults living in Indiana, Chicago, and Tulsa who reported pain for greater than three months provided their chronic pain illness experiences for this paper. The paper uses three data-derived themes to encompass the broad reaching social, psychological, and cultural suffering inherent in coping with chronic pain: invisibility, psychological peace, and warrior strength. American Indian chronic pain sufferers in this study struggle with the multiplicative invisibility of both their chronic pain and their native identity. The invisibility leads to passing as white in environments hostile to people of color. It also results in family disconnection, loneliness, and isolation. In order to survive socially-mediated assaults, American Indian chronic pain sufferers keep their psyche at peace through stress management, cultural engagement, and non-negativity. They also call upon warrior strength—their understanding that American Indians as peoples have always survived bolsters their individual strength to push through the pain. They seek to function without further debility and to maintain their economic, spiritual, social, and physical wellness. Ultimately the participants in this research tell a profound, critical, and world-changing story that requires attention in overcoming barriers to full thriving with chronic pain.

The Motions Beneath: Indigenous Migrants of the Urban Frontier of New Spain

In this well-researched book, Laurent Corbeil offers the story of how a complex mix of indigenous migrants from central areas of Mexico moved beneath the structures of colonialism and actively contributed to the creation of a flourishing economy and society during the first forty years of the city of San Luis Potosí. In sorting out these multiethnic northward migrations, concepts of mobility and identity thread through his analysis.How does this study fit into a larger narrative that has highlighted the migrations of many thousands of indigenous peoples to New Spain’s northern frontiers from the sixteenth century onward? To date, the two most documented patterns of this migration involve indios conquistadores, who accompanied early Spanish expeditions and homogenous Tlaxcalan “colonies,” financed by the crown to assist Spaniards in acculturating the north’s mostly nonsedentary natives. A third pattern concerns the migrants who filled the labor demands of the silver mining economy that evolved in sparsely populated areas. Although this manifestation of heterogeneous migration was actually the most massive in terms of overall numbers, it has only recently begun to be studied in its enormous complexity. For example, in Urban Indians in a Silver City: Zacatecas, Mexico, 1546–1806 (2016), Dana Velasco Murillo examines multiethnic migrants to New Spain’s primary silver city over the longue durée, demonstrating how they shaped semi-autonomous communities by adapting Spanish institutions like the cofradía to protect their interests.Focusing on a shorter time span, Corbeil also addresses the more substantial and relatively neglected history of labor migration by detailing how multiethnic indigenous migrants re-created communities and identities in San Luis Potosí. Although an organized contingent of Tlaxcalans arrived there in 1591 to help incorporate local Guachichils, Corbeil shows that this type of corporate migration, in which ethnicity was the primary marker of identity, was atypical in San Luis Potosí. Many other factors, most especially mobility, influenced how indigenous people created affiliations and identified themselves. They arrived primarily as individuals or in small groups from over a hundred communities of origin and included Tarascans, Nahuas, Otomis, Cocas, Tecuexes, and Cazcans among others. In many cases they had made stops along the way, through a variety of landscapes, contacts, and languages.In San Luis Potosí itself, indigenous people interacted across a conurbation, or tight networks of distinct, yet interdependent communities. Drawing on a painstaking reading of a variety of sources, including local parish and criminal records, Corbeil shows how mobility across worksites where labor teams were not ethnically homogeneous facilitated contacts and economic ties that gave individuals multiple affiliations. Daily encounters in drinking establishments, commercial activities, and craft production also encouraged interethnic relations. Catholic marriage and baptism created extended family bonds. Contacts could also foment enmities that played out in drunken brawls and other violence. After the first twenty years, even as newcomers continued to arrive, the children of migrants constituted a core population that was consolidating indigenous social structures and hierarchies. Formerly loosely organized pueblos and barrios de indios developed official discourses and corporate identities to defend themselves against Spaniards, as competition for land increased. These corporate identities were based more on living spaces than origin or ethnicity and, according to Corbeil, contributed to creating some stability in the transition from mining to other productive economic activities.A study that goes beyond the early years will no doubt reveal other structures and changes in social organization as well as specifically gendered contributions to the developing conurbation. Nonetheless, this microcosmic reading of the early socially heterogeneous, disorderly past of San Luis Potosí is filled with individual stories and insights that demonstrate the complexity of social relations and individual affiliations among indigenous peoples who were dynamically involved in creating a productive and flourishing economy and society, however socially differentiated. The book adds significantly to a trend that addresses gaps in our understanding of how Mesoamericans influenced the development of New Spain’s north.

Indigenous Cities: Urban Indian Fiction and the Histories of Relocation

Indigenous Cities: Urban Indian Fiction and the Histories of Relocation

Insights into the gastrointestinal tract microbiomes of Indian population

Trillions of microbes living in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of the human body finely tune homeostatic equilibrium in the GIT ecosystem and encode key functionalities that play crucial role in host metabolic functions, synthesis of macro- and micronutrients, xenobiotics metabolisms, development of innate and adaptive immune systems, tissue and organ developments and resistance against invasion of enteric pathogens. The microbial diversity and richness of GIT ecosystem varies greatly between individuals and over time. Extent of taxonomic and functional variations in GIT ecosystem is linked with dietary habit, pharmaceuticals usages, age, sex, body mass index, ethnicity, geography, altitude and civilization. Understanding a holistic picture of GIT microbiome of healthy people living across geography and identifying population specific 'keystone' taxa is of immense importance for identifying microbial species that may provide protection against chronic and metabolic diseases. Knowledge on geographic or ethnicity specific microbial signatures may also help us to understand the varied efficacy of different drugs and vaccines in different population. India is the home of more than 1.36 billion people belonging to 2000 human communities residing in well distinct geography. In the present review, we discuss the microbial signatures in health and diseases of the rural and urban Indians living in sea level and high altitude areas.

An Evaluation of Hepatitis C Virus Telehealth Services Serving Tribal Communities: Patterns of Usage, Evolving Needs, and Barriers

American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations are disproportionately affected by chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Federal facilities of the Indian Health Service, in conjunction with Tribally operated and Urban Indian (I/T/U) health care facilities, serve an estimated 2.2 million AI/AN patients. The facilities are mainly rural and have few specialists. To fill the gap in specialists in I/T/U clinics, the Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) telehealth model was used to support clinicians to treat HCV in primary care. Participants in 3 regional HCV ECHO networks serving AI/AN patients were surveyed by e-mail and text message to determine patterns of ECHO usage, usefulness, and barriers to treating patients with HCV at their primary care clinics. From a total of 44 respondents from 72 eligible health care facilities, a majority (61%) stated that they started treating patients with HCV subsequent to participating in the telehealth program. Participants with more telehealth experience sought increasing complexity in patient case presentations. In California, 7 of 8 clinicians who had attended more than 10 ECHO sessions expressed diminishing need for ECHO sessions to manage cases (<25% of patients). All elements of the ECHO sessions (presenting patient cases, listening to patient case presentations, teaching sessions, and sharing of programmatic insights) were considered "extremely useful" by the majority of respondents. The factors most cited as moderate or extensive barriers to providing HCV care were access to HCV direct acting antivirals (60%) and linking patients to care (50%). Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes may play a key role not only in increasing clinical capacity for HCV treatment but also in the inception of HCV services in this sample of I/T/U facilities. Participants with more telehealth experience demonstrated signs of increasing clinical capacity, where they were more likely to seek complex patient case presentations in ECHO sessions. A number of barriers continue to keep AI/ANs from being cured and stop clinicians from ending the epidemic, including access to HCV medications, time to provide HCV clinical services, and linking patients to HCV services.

Early detection of chronic kidney disease in low-income and middle-income countries: development and validation of a point-of-care screening strategy for India

IntroductionAlthough deaths due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) have doubled over the past two decades, few data exist to inform screening strategies for early detection of CKD in low-income and...

Redefining gender stereotypes in Indian English TV advertising

AbstractThe aim of this study was to examine glocalization in Hinglish TV commercials, specifically those that break and redefine gender stereotypes. It examines how Hindi and English in these commercials modulate sociocultural identities, representing Hindi as old and English as new. Two questions which are addressed in this article are whether Hinglish reflects the hybrid culture of the new urban Indian, and whether there is an emergence of new modern values associated with liberalism in place of the older traditional values of family, marriage and propriety.

Good Health and Wellness: Measuring Impact Through an Indigenous Lens.

In 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) commissioned the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI) to coordinate a multifaceted national evaluation plan for Good Health and Wellness in Indian Country (GHWIC), CDC’s largest investment in chronic disease prevention for American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs). GHWIC is a collaborative agreement among UIHI, CDC, tribal organizations, and individual tribes. In collaboration, UIHI and CDC drew upon an indigenous framework, prioritizing strength-based approaches for documenting program activities, to develop a 3-tiered evaluation model. The model incorporated locally tailored metrics, adherence to tribal protocols, and cultural priorities. Ultimately, federal requirements and data collection processes were aligned with tribal strengths and bidirectional learning was promoted. We describe how UIHI worked with tribal recipients, tribal health organizations, Tribal Epidemiology Centers, and CDC to develop and implement the model on the basis of an indigenous framework of mutual trust and respect.

Crossing boundaries: bras, lingerie and rape myths in postcolonial urban middle-class India

With the processes of modernization, urbanization and the entry of women in the formal labour market in Indian metropolitan spaces, this article examines how the modern middle-class woman’s sartorial choices become enmeshed in popular rape myths (false beliefs) that serve to blame her for the wearing of western clothing. The article articulates the ways in which middle-class women’s social realities are shaped by historical, colonial and nationalist ideologies of modernization, constructed and mediated through moral codes of dressing. By drawing upon original and contemporary empirical narratives from the urban spaces of Delhi and Mumbai, we emphasise how everyday sartorial choices, in relation to particularly the bra and lingerie, can reveal the nuanced ways in which Urban Indian Professional Women (UIPW) seek to understand, negotiate, and resist patriarchal power. Our findings shed light on conflicting and contradictory spatial experiences, where some women internalize and negotiate moral codes of dressing, out of fear, and others who transgress are subject to sanctions. Given the paucity of scholarly literature in this area, the article makes an important theoretical and empirical contribution with its focus on postcoloniality and everyday discursive material spaces of gendered and sexualized dress practices. It argues for the consciousness raising of everyday urban geographies of dress that reveal complicated structures of power that are often deemed hidden.

2293-PUB: Evaluation of Utility of Flash Glucose Monitoring (FGM) in People with Type 2 Diabetes in an Urban Indian Setting

The scientific utility of Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose (SMBG) has been recently challenged by scientific reports. Therefore, we aimed to understand the utility of FGM in Indian setting. FGM is a standard care of practice at our center to deliver effective metabolic care. We analyzed the FGM reports (Libre Pro) from the LINA cohort (n=102; males 67, females 35), to understand the impact of measures adopted for glycemic control. We compared the baseline HbA1c with the repeat HbA1c when the patients reported for at least one follow-up within six months, of undergoing the FGM and being recommended changes in lifestyle with appropriate therapeutic changes, on the basis of FGM findings. Statistical analysis was performed by student t test. The mean age was 60 years (SD±13, 95% CI 57-62). Mean duration of diabetes 13 years (SD±9.2, 95% CI 11-15). The mean baseline HbA1c 8.5% (SD±1.5, 95% CI 8.2-8.8) significantly reduced to mean HbA1c 8% (SD±1.4, 95% CI 7.7-8.3) (p=0.144). Mean reduction in HbA1c was -0.5% (SD±1.4, 95% CI -0.78 to -0.22). Out of 102 patients for HbA1c comparison for change in HbA1c, 68 reported reductions in HbA1c of which 47 (69%) reported HbA1c reductions greater than 0.5%. We corroborated the reported estimated HbA1c (eHbA1c) from Libre Pro with conventional HbA1c reports at follow-up. The higher mean difference in HbA1c of 0.82%, does not justify the utility of eHbA1c in FGM. This often is a misleading tool and a deterrent to efficacious glycemic care. The greater adoption of FGM in our setting empowered patients to choose a healthy lifestyle and the health care professionals to judiciously customize the therapy, with reduction in glycemic variability and increasing the time in range. The rationality of the utility of eHbA1c, which has been questioned in our real-world data, need to be addressed through a higher level of evidence by a larger, nation- wide prospective multicentric study. Disclosure M. Chawla: None. P.M. Chawla: None. A. Shah: None.

Monitoring Sexual Violence Visits in Emergency Department Data to Improve Public Health

ObjectiveTo describe characteristics of sexual violence emergency department visits in Washington State.IntroductionAlthough sexual violence is a pressing public health and safety issue, it has historically been challenging to monitor population trends with precision. Approximately 31% of incidents of sexual violence are reported to law enforcement and only 5% lead to an arrest1, making the use of law enforcement data challenging. Syndromic surveillance data from emergency departments provides an opportunity to use care-seeking to more accurately surveil sexual violence without introducing additional burdens on either patients or healthcare providers.MethodsUsing the National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) Electronic Surveillance System for Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) platform, staff from the Rapid Health Information Network (RHINO) program at the Washington State Department of Health created a syndrome definition for sexual violence in emergency department data using a combination of ICD-10 diagnostic codes and chief complaint terms likely to be used for sexual violence visits.Staff executed the query using both the Chief Complaint Query Validation and Facility Location (Full Details) data sources in the NSSP ESSENCE platform. Validation occurred by examining visits from 2017 using the Original Chief Complaint, Diagnosis Combo, and Original Triage Notes fields in the data details output to determine if a visit was a true positive for sexual violence. Staff then used the R Studio platform to create n-grams to analyze commonly occurring terms in the data.RHINO staff collaborated with colleagues in the agency's Injury and Violence Prevention Section to better understand the trends observed in the data and the utility of using syndromic surveillance to inform public health practice.ResultsThe query identified 1,550 visits for sexual violence in 2017. Female patients were disproportionately represented (87.16%), with female patients aged 10-29 years making up 47.03% of captured visits. Overall, patients 10-29 years of age represented 52.90% of all identified visits. Older patients, particularly older men were less represented.Among the captured visits, staff analyzed a sample of 347 visits and found that 88.76% were correctly identified as being related to sexual violence. Although triage notes are an optional field for Washington State syndromic reporting and only present in approximately 40% of records, analysis of the triage notes also provided contextual details on the time (36.89%) and place (18.44%) of the incident, and the identity of the assailant (17.29%).Among patients 10-29 years old, several increases in the percentage of emergency department visits for sexual violence were observed in conjunction with secondary and post-secondary school term breaks, as well as at the beginning of Autumn and end of Spring terms at most Washington State universities. The trend was present in both patients 10-19 years and 20-29 years, with a stronger signal in the 10-19 year age group. The pattern was not present in either older or younger patients.ConclusionsThe seasonal trend associated with the academic calendar in patients 10-29 years of age is consistent with other data on teen and campus dating violence2,3 and provides another piece of information to validate and inform the work of social service groups serving adolescents and young adults.Syndromic data is particularly well suited to translating surveillance into actionable public health—having additional data to support the hypotheses of state Rape Prevention and Education programs has the potential to encourage greater participation from universities and other academic institutions to improve consent and sexual violence response programs. Regardless of whether patients are affiliated with a specific institution, the overall safety of the communities where students live is of importance to academic institutions. Similarly, yearly increases in visits during annual mass gatherings may be of use in communicating with event organizers strategies for reducing incidents of violence during that period.Indexing the query for sexual violence within the NSSP ESSENCE platform allows surveillance practitioners to quickly and easily monitor emergency department visits for sexual violence using a standardized methodology. As a national platform, NSSP ESSENCE facilitates collaboration across borders between local, state, Tribal and Urban Indian, and national public health agencies. This improved availability and performance of the query. Additionally, the point-and-click nature of the ESSENCE platform makes using syndromic data more accessible for local health and social service staff who are not trained in epidemiology. The ease of collaboration between partners using the platform also makes it well suited to work which span state, local, and Tribal, and Urban Indian health needs. Data and query sharing increases the likelihood that the data will be actionable and therefore positively influence public health.

Indigenous Epidemiology: Identifying Health Disparities and Health Priorities

ObjectiveTo create an interactive, user friendly platform for partners and data users to increase awareness around relevant health disparities and strengths within the urban AI/AN community.IntroductionHistorically, there has been a lack of data available to assess the health and well-being of urban American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) in the United States. Furthermore, there has been limited data showing the increasing disparities that exists between urban AI/ANs and non-Hispanic Whites (NHW). Organizations looking to address these disparities have limited resources and mechanisms to address this rising problem.1 In 2017, Urban Indian Health Institute (UHI) released a series of Community Health Profiles (CHPs) detailing the health status of urban AI/AN communities to provide detailed information to assist in program planning, grant writing and advocacy through increased documentation of current health disparities faced by urban AI/AN populations.MethodsHistorically, there has been a lack of data available to assess the health and well-being of urban American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) in the United States. Furthermore, there has been limited data showing the increasing disparities that exists between urban AI/ANs and non-Hispanic Whites (NHW). Organizations looking to address these disparities have limited resources and mechanisms to address this rising problem.1 In 2017, Urban Indian Health Institute (UHI) released a series of Community Health Profiles (CHPs) detailing the health status of urban AI/AN communities to provide detailed information to assist in program planning, grant writing and advocacy through increased documentation of current health disparities faced by urban AI/AN populations.ResultsKey findings from the results showed that urban AI/AN people continue to face significant socio-economic disparities when compared to non-Hispanic whites, for example more than twice as many urban AI/ANs over 16 were unemployed between 2010-2014 when compared to their NHW counterparts (15.8% vs. 7.4%). However, urban AI/ANs experience significantly lower rates of suicide when compared to NHW communities. Additionally, although urban AI/AN women gave birth at younger ages on average when compared to NHW women of reproductive age, they were significantly less likely to deliver by cesarean section. Lastly, significantly fewer urban AI/ANs reported using alcohol in the past month when compared to NHWs (44% vs. 60%).ConclusionThis analysis of national surveillance data highlights the strengths of the urban AI/AN community around suicide and alcohol use in the past month and point to areas for improvement. By translating these results into a Tableau dashboard, this data is more user friendly and can be used to support programs in identifying health priorities.