International journal of circumpolar health
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Int J Circumpolar Health · Jan 2013
The use of remote presence for health care delivery in a northern Inuit community: a feasibility study.
To evaluate the feasibility of remote presence for improving the health of residents in a remote northern Inuit community. ⋯ These results show the feasibility of deploying a remote presence robot in a distant northern community and a high degree of satisfaction with the technology. Remote presence in the Canadian North has potential for delivering a cost-effective health care solution to underserviced communities reducing the need for the transport of patients and caregivers to distant referral centers.
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Int J Circumpolar Health · Jan 2013
ReviewA review of protective factors and causal mechanisms that enhance the mental health of Indigenous Circumpolar youth.
To review the protective factors and causal mechanisms which promote and enhance Indigenous youth mental health in the Circumpolar North. ⋯ Healthy communities and families foster and support youth who are resilient to mental health challenges and able to adapt and cope with multiple stressors, be they social, economic, or environmental. Creating opportunities and environments where youth can successfully navigate challenges and enhance their resilience can in turn contribute to fostering healthy Circumpolar communities. Looking at the role of new social media in the way youth communicate and interact is one way of understanding how to create such opportunities. Youth perspectives of mental health programmes are crucial to developing appropriate mental health support and meaningful engagement of youth can inform locally appropriate and culturally relevant mental health resources, programmes and community resilience strategies.
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Int J Circumpolar Health · Jan 2013
ReviewReducing Alaska Native paediatric oral health disparities: a systematic review of oral health interventions and a case study on multilevel strategies to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage intake.
Tooth decay is the most common paediatric disease and there is a serious paediatric tooth decay epidemic in Alaska Native communities. When untreated, tooth decay can lead to pain, infection, systemic health problems, hospitalisations and in rare cases death, as well as school absenteeism, poor grades and low quality-of-life. The extent to which population-based oral health interventions have been conducted in Alaska Native paediatric populations is unknown. ⋯ Few oral health interventions have been tested within Alaska Native communities. Community-centred multilevel interventions are promising approaches to improve the oral and systemic health of Alaska Native children. Future investigators should evaluate the feasibility of implementing multilevel interventions and policies within Alaska Native communities as a way to reduce children's health disparities.
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Int J Circumpolar Health · Jan 2013
Abusive head trauma among children in Alaska: a population-based assessment.
Serious physical abuse resulting in a traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been implicated as an underreported cause of infant mortality. Nearly 80% of all abusive head trauma (AHT) occurs among children <2 years of age, with infants experiencing an incidence nearly 8 times that of 2-year olds. ⋯ In Alaska, applying the CDC PAHT definition to the multi-source database enabled us to capture 49% more AHT cases than any of the individual database used in this analysis alone.