Our Stories, Our Medicine Archives: A Culture Centered Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease Health Information Interface for Urban American Indian and Alaska Native and Indigenous Communities

NIH RePORTER · NIH · G08 · $140,501 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN) and Indigenous populations experience disproportionately high rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and lack access to reliable health care and health information. Traumatic stressors such as racial discrimination and disruptions to social and cultural health traditions are likely to be connected to poor health outcomes including chronic preventable health issues such as diabetes and CVD. For AIAN populations, this link is especially relevant. Centuries of traumatic events have contributed to devastating health outcomes in AIAN communities. Over the last several decades, the role of cultural healing practices has been recognized as an important approach to treating acute as well as chronic health conditions. However, urban AIANs, approximately 70% of the national AIAN population, often lack either cultural or medical resources. Access to online health information, however, can positively impact consumer healthcare both directly and indirectly and offers an opportunity for urban AIANs. The Our Stories, Our Medicine Archive (OSOMA) seeks to leverage web-based access to health information by providing traditional indigenous health knowledge information along with widely available evidence-based and emergent practices for diabetes and CVD specific to AIAN communities. The OSOMA project presents a novel approach to addressing health disparities in urban AIAN communities through locating diabetes and cardiovascular disease information within an interactive community-based participatory digital archive that is created by and for urban AIANs. We propose 4 specific aims: Aim 1: Form and convene a CAB of health sciences librarians, physicians, AIAN health experts, and community members to ensure a culturally responsive approach to the archive and interface design and research process. Aim 2: Conduct content analyses across and within 50 oral history interviews and corresponding archival materials to create culturally relevant health information modules related to diabetes and CVD prevention. Aim 3: Design, develop and launch a community-based participatory digital archive and health information interface centering on traditional indigenous health knowledge about diabetes and CVD with and for urban AIAN individuals. Aim 4: Evaluate the accessibility of health information content, usability of the health information modules and interface, and narrative engagement with the archival and health information materials. Once the interface is launched we will assess the accessibility of content, interface usability, and the extent to which 100 urban AIAN participants engage with narrative content (e.g. stories excerpted from oral histories).

Key facts

NIH application ID
10486133
Project number
5G08LM013186-02
Recipient
UNIVERSITY OF DENVER (COLORADO SEMINARY)
Principal Investigator
RAMONA E BELTRAN
Activity code
G08
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2022
Award amount
$140,501
Award type
5
Project period
2021-09-09 → 2024-08-31