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Alaska Native Elders’ perspectives on dietary patterns in rural, remote communities

BACKGROUND: Given the increasing rates of childhood obesity in Alaska Native children and the understanding that the most effective interventions are informed by and reflect the cultural knowledge of the community in which they are implemented, this project sought to gather the wisdom of local Yup’i...

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Autores principales: Walch, Amanda K., Ohle, Kathryn A., Koller, Kathryn R., Alexie, Lucinda, Sapp, Flora, Thomas, Timothy K., Bersamin, Andrea
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8427848/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34503462
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11598-8
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author Walch, Amanda K.
Ohle, Kathryn A.
Koller, Kathryn R.
Alexie, Lucinda
Sapp, Flora
Thomas, Timothy K.
Bersamin, Andrea
author_facet Walch, Amanda K.
Ohle, Kathryn A.
Koller, Kathryn R.
Alexie, Lucinda
Sapp, Flora
Thomas, Timothy K.
Bersamin, Andrea
author_sort Walch, Amanda K.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Given the increasing rates of childhood obesity in Alaska Native children and the understanding that the most effective interventions are informed by and reflect the cultural knowledge of the community in which they are implemented, this project sought to gather the wisdom of local Yup’ik and Cup’ik Elders in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of Alaska around how to maintain a healthy diet and active lifestyle. METHODS: Perspectives were sought through the use of semi-structured focus groups, which were completed in person in twelve communities. All conversations were recorded, translated, transcribed, and analyzed using a qualitative approach, where key themes were identified. RESULTS: Elders provided a clear and consistent recollection of what their life looked like when they were young and expressed their perspectives related to maintaining a healthy and traditional lifestyle. The key themes the Elders discussed included an emphasis on the nutritional and cultural benefits of traditional foods; concerns around changing dietary patterns such as the consumption of processed foods and sugar sweetened beverages; and concerns on the time and use of screens. Elders also expressed a desire to help younger generations learn traditional subsistence practices. CONCLUSIONS: The risk of obesity in Alaska Native children is high and intervention efforts should be grounded in local knowledge and values. The perspectives from Yup’ik and Cup’ik Elders in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta area of Alaska provide a better understanding on local views of how to maintain a healthy diet, physical activities, and traditional values.
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spelling pubmed-84278482021-09-10 Alaska Native Elders’ perspectives on dietary patterns in rural, remote communities Walch, Amanda K. Ohle, Kathryn A. Koller, Kathryn R. Alexie, Lucinda Sapp, Flora Thomas, Timothy K. Bersamin, Andrea BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Given the increasing rates of childhood obesity in Alaska Native children and the understanding that the most effective interventions are informed by and reflect the cultural knowledge of the community in which they are implemented, this project sought to gather the wisdom of local Yup’ik and Cup’ik Elders in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of Alaska around how to maintain a healthy diet and active lifestyle. METHODS: Perspectives were sought through the use of semi-structured focus groups, which were completed in person in twelve communities. All conversations were recorded, translated, transcribed, and analyzed using a qualitative approach, where key themes were identified. RESULTS: Elders provided a clear and consistent recollection of what their life looked like when they were young and expressed their perspectives related to maintaining a healthy and traditional lifestyle. The key themes the Elders discussed included an emphasis on the nutritional and cultural benefits of traditional foods; concerns around changing dietary patterns such as the consumption of processed foods and sugar sweetened beverages; and concerns on the time and use of screens. Elders also expressed a desire to help younger generations learn traditional subsistence practices. CONCLUSIONS: The risk of obesity in Alaska Native children is high and intervention efforts should be grounded in local knowledge and values. The perspectives from Yup’ik and Cup’ik Elders in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta area of Alaska provide a better understanding on local views of how to maintain a healthy diet, physical activities, and traditional values. BioMed Central 2021-09-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8427848/ /pubmed/34503462 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11598-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research Article
Walch, Amanda K.
Ohle, Kathryn A.
Koller, Kathryn R.
Alexie, Lucinda
Sapp, Flora
Thomas, Timothy K.
Bersamin, Andrea
Alaska Native Elders’ perspectives on dietary patterns in rural, remote communities
title Alaska Native Elders’ perspectives on dietary patterns in rural, remote communities
title_full Alaska Native Elders’ perspectives on dietary patterns in rural, remote communities
title_fullStr Alaska Native Elders’ perspectives on dietary patterns in rural, remote communities
title_full_unstemmed Alaska Native Elders’ perspectives on dietary patterns in rural, remote communities
title_short Alaska Native Elders’ perspectives on dietary patterns in rural, remote communities
title_sort alaska native elders’ perspectives on dietary patterns in rural, remote communities
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8427848/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34503462
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11598-8
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