The First Annual Summit on Urban Native Elder Health and Health Care

Washington State University, Pullman WA

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract Although 71% of American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) live in urban areas, most research on Native health has been conducted in rural and reservation communities. The result is a troubling dearth of knowledge on the overall AI/AN population, which experiences some of the harshest health disparities of any US racial or ethnic group. This gap in our understanding is particularly concerning in the case of Native elders, meaning those aged 65 and older. Findings over the past two decades show that AI/ANs of all ages are at elevated risk of obesity, smoking, substance abuse, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and traumatic injury.3-8 Limited data also suggest that the risk for several of these behaviors and conditions ? notably alcohol abuse, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and traumatic injury ? is even higher among urban Natives. Yet we lack the knowledge base necessary for a nuanced understanding of the risk profiles and healthcare needs of urban Native elders, who likely encounter a ?risk landscape? that differs substantially from the one traversed by their rural counterparts. To stimulate research that will address this gap in knowledge and inform the allocation of healthcare resources for programs responsive to the needs of urban Native elders, we propose a conference series: Annual Summit on Urban Native Elder Health and Healthcare. The present application seeks support for the first conference in this series, a two-day event that will be held in Seattle in July 2017, immediately after the well-established National Urban Indian Health Conference in the same city. Summit sessions will include presentations on ongoing and completed research; capacity-building sessions that offer training on research administration and participation in multi-site projects; a brainstorming session to develop a collective agenda for research on the health of urban Native elders; and a working meeting to establish a collaborative research network among conference participants.