Researchers seek out 2007-08 Inuit health survey participants

A health worker takes a blood sample from a Kugluktuk woman during the 2008 leg of the Qanuippitali Inuit health survey. Researchers are reaching out to those who participated in the 2007-08 Inuit health survey to obtain consent for continued use of their data. (FILE PHOTO)

If you’re one of the 2,500 people from Nunavut, Nunatsiavut or the Inuvialuit settlement region who took part in the 2007-08 national Inuit health survey, somebody will soon contact you to get continued consent for use of your data, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami said last week.

ITK made the announcement in a notice posted on their website.

Many Canadian Arctic residents will remember the national Inuit health survey—called “Qanuippitali”—conducted from aboard the Coast Guard’s research vessel, the Amundsen, which called at nearly every Inuit community in Nunavut, Labrador and the Northwest Territories in the summers of 2007 and 2008.

In Nunavik, a similar but separate Quebec-run study was done from aboard the Amundsen in 2004. A second Nunavik Inuit health survey wrapped up this past October in Kuujjuaq.

But in the other three regions of Inuit Nunangat, ITK is still working out plans for a repeat survey.

In the meantime, the national Inuit organization said researchers want to contact those who participated in the first pan-Arctic health study 10 years ago to obtain consent for the continued use of their data.

“Informed consent is a critical part of the landmark research project,” the ITK announcement said.

In 2007-08, Inuit health study participants could choose to be contacted again to extend their consent to the preservation of information such as personal identifiers and blood samples.

Those who are again contacted may choose to be re-contacted in 2025.

ITK said all data from the survey is held in strict confidentiality at McGill University in Montreal and that individual names do not appear in any of the data forms or samples.

“Inuit should feel free to provide their consent to the continued storage of their data knowing that it will be of great value in the development of robust policies and programming in our communities. Those who deny their consent should do so with the full understanding that their wishes will be respected,” ITK President Natan Obed said in a statement included in the announcement.

Three regional Inuit organizations—Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the Inuvialuit Regional Council and the Nunatsiavut Government—are overseeing the “re-consent” exercise with researchers from McGill University. The governments of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, as well as ITK are helping out.

Local representatives will contact study participants, ITK said.

“The Inuit Health Survey has contributed greatly to our understanding of Inuit health in Inuit Nunangat. Inuit-supported research is critical to informing the design of policies that influence our quality of life,” Obed said.

The 2007-08 Inuit health survey was paid for with $10.6 million in federal funds that were part of Canada’s contribution to International Polar Year research efforts.

The Nunavut segments of the survey were co-ordinated by a patchwork of regional organizations, which in Nunavut included the Nunavut Association of Municipalities, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., and the Government of Nunavut.

The results of that survey came out in dribs and drabs, starting with academic papers presented at the 2009 International Congress of Circumpolar Health held in Yellowknife.

One paper reported that half of Inuit children between the ages of three and five don’t get enough food to eat.

Another found that seven in 10 Inuit households in Nunavut were short of food at some point in the year prior to being surveyed.

Another, based on information that wasn’t revealed until 2012, was based on a questionnaire on community health and wellness that found widespread mental distress, suicidal thoughts, and childhood sexual abuse in Nunavut.

In 2014, Nunavut Tunngavik slammed the organizers of the 2007-08 survey for “ethical oversights.”

“Its results have generally been disseminated to an academic audience in isolated fragments rather than showing how the results fit into a larger picture of Inuit health,” NTI said.

ITK now plans to oversee a second national Inuit health survey.

Last year, the organization put out a job advertisement for a senior policy advisor to lead work on it.

And this past fall, ITK issued a request for proposals that seeks someone to put together a business case for a new health survey.

But that work does not appear to be done yet.

“The next Inuit Health Survey is currently being developed,” ITK said in its Jan. 10 announcement.