Gender, education, smoking, family affect Inuit health: StatsCan

This chart from a recently-released Statistics Canada study shows self-reported health among Inuit in 2012. (GRAPH COURTESY OF STATSCAN)

If you’re an Inuk who feels healthy, you’re likely an educated, non-smoking, slim young man with a some post-secondary education and a solid family.

That’s according to the findings of a Statistics Canada study on the social determinants of self-reported Inuit health in Inuit Nunangat, 2012, released last week.

The study found Inuit women were less likely to report excellent or very good health than men, among those aged 25 to 54 years, “even after controlling for other factors.”

And, among other things, “strong or very strong family ties were associated with higher levels of excellent or very good health, while those with less than a high school education and those who were obese were associated with lower levels of excellent or very good health,” the study said.

Among Inuit, 15 to 24, in Inuit Nunangat regions, more than half of those with “strong or very strong family ties” had excellent or very good health, compared with 43 per cent of those with moderate, weak or very weak family ties.

The same relationship held true for Inuit, 25 to 54 — those with strong or very strong family ties were more likely to be in excellent or very good health (42 per cent) than those with weaker ties (34 per cent.)

The study also found:

• younger Inuit who were daily smokers were less likely to be in excellent or very good health: Less than half (47 per cent) of daily smokers were predicted to be in excellent or very good health compared with 55 per cent of those who smoked occasionally or not at all;

• younger Inuit who lived in a crowded dwelling — defined as living in a dwelling with more than one person per room — had a lower probability of being in excellent or very good health;

• one third of Inuit, 25 to 54, or 33 per cent, who lived in a dwelling that was in need of major repairs were in excellent or very good health compared with 41 per cent of those who lived in a dwelling that only needed regular maintenance or minor repairs; and,

• more than one-third (35 per cent) of Inuit, 25 to 54, who had low or very low food security were predicted to be in excellent or very good health, while the probability for those with high or marginal food security was greater — 43 per cent.

The study used data from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey to examine relationships between self-reported health and some of the social determinants of health, as identified by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, assessing the relationship between various social, economic and cultural factors and excellent or very good self-reported health.

The analysis looked at two age groups: those aged 15 to 24 and those aged 25 to 54.

To measure self-reported health, the survey asked respondents to report their health as being, in general, “excellent,” “very good,” “good,” “fair” or “poor.”

Another recent StatsCan report found Canadian Inuit women continue to play catch-up with other Aboriginal women in Canada.