New report homes in on cancer risks for Inuit in the South

This new report from Tungasuvvingat Inuit and Cancer Care Ontario aims to improve the health of Inuit who live in the South.

While Inuit health surveys regularly examine the health of Inuit in Nunavut and Nunavik, the same can’t be said for Inuit living in the South.

Statistics Canada figures estimate that about 16,000 Inuit, or 26.9 per cent of all Inuit in Canada, live outside the Inuit regions, or Inuit Nunangat.

Inuit Nunangat includes the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut, with roughly 7,000 of these Inuit residing outside the area, in major cities.

A new report, which looks at cancer risk factors and screening among Inuit in Ontario and other Canadian regions, produced by the Ottawa-based community organization, Tungasuvvingat Inuit, and Cancer Care Ontario, is intended to be a first step in keeping Inuit living outside Inuit Nunangat healthy.

“The first of its kind, this report reviews available statistics for urban Inuit on cancer screening and modifiable behaviours.

“The information it provides will serve as a valuable tool that will enable our communities to take better care of themselves and help us modify our health outcomes with respect to cancer and cancer screening,” TI’s president, Joyce Ford, said in her introduction to the report.

Its 70 well-laid-out, and thoughtful, pages include an interesting and informative timeline on Inuit history.

The report also includes important information on risk factors for Inuit on cancers associated with lifestyle such as tobacco, alcohol, diet, body composition and physical activity, which play the largest role in the risk of developing cancer and cancer screening, the report notes.

The findings of the report, which incorporate available data about Ontario Inuit, mention many things including:

• tobacco, “the single most important modifiable cause of cancer.” Nearly one in four Inuit living outside Nunangat reported smoking daily or occasionally, compared to one in five non-Aboriginal Ontarians. Smoking was especially high among Inuit women and two times higher among Inuit women than among non-Aboriginal women in Ontario;

• second-hand smoke, known to increase the risk of lung cancer: exposure to second-hand smoke in the home for non-smokers living outside Nunangat was two times higher than for non-Aboriginal Ontarians;

• alcohol, which increases the risk of a number of cancers, including those of the mouth and throat, liver, breast and bowel: fewer Inuit men and women living inside Inuit Nunangat than in the North abstained from alcohol in the previous 12 months before they were surveyed;

• diet and food security: Inuit living outside Inuit Nunangat suffered higher household food insecurity than non-Aboriginal Ontarians, and even more so in the youngest age group of 16-to-24-year-olds;

• body composition: Inuit women outside Inuit Nunangat were nearly two times more likely to be obese than non-Aboriginal women, while Inuit women in Ontario had more excess body weight than non-Aboriginal women in Ontario; and,

• cancer screening: a higher proportion of Inuit living in Nunangat were overdue for colorectal screening than non-Aboriginal Ontarians.

The report’s authors said, among other goals, that they hope their report produces a strategy for improving the identification of Inuit in health data.

“Furthermore, our findings call for culturally appropriate, system-level interventions to improve the health and well-being of Inuit in all regions of Canada, with an emphasis on the growing population living outside Inuit Nunangat,” said a release on the report.

You can download the report here or view the embedded document below.

Inuit Cancer Risk Factors and Screening by NunatsiaqNews on Scribd