Abstract
Aims: Historically, health research in the Arctic has focused on documenting ill-health using a narrow set of deficit-oriented epidemiologic indicators (i.e., prevalence of disease and mortality rates). While useful, this type of research does not adequately capture the breadth and complexities of community health and well-being, and fails to highlight solutions. A community’s context, strengths, and continued expressions of well-being need to guide inquiries, inform processes, and contextualize recommendations. In this paper, we present a conceptual framework developed to address the aforementioned concerns and inform community-led health and social research in the Arctic.
Methods: The proposed framework is informed by our collective collaborations with circumpolar communities, and syntheses of individual and group research undertaken throughout the Circumpolar North. Our framework encourages investigation into the contextual factors that promote circumpolar communities to thrive.
Results: Our framework centers on the visual imagery of an iceberg. There is a need to dive deeper than superficial indicators of health to examine individual, family, social, cultural, historical, linguistic, and environmental contexts that support communities in the Circumpolar North to thrive. A participatory community-based approach in conjunction with ongoing epidemiologic research is necessary in order to effectively support health and wellness.
Conclusions: The iceberg framework is a way to conceptualize circumpolar health research and encourage investigators to both monitor epidemiologic indicators and also dive below the surface using participatory methodology to investigate contextual factors that support thriving communities.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Tidsskrift | Scandinavian Journal of Public Health |
| Vol/bind | 51 |
| Udgave nummer | 7 |
| Sider (fra-til) | 1086-1095 |
| ISSN | 1403-4948 |
| DOI |
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| Status | Udgivet - nov. 2023 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:We wish to acknowledge the arctic communities where we have lived and worked, which continue to inspire us to effect change for present and future generations. We also wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Fulbright Foundation for supporting individual and collective research undertaken through the Fulbright Arctic Initiative 2018–19.
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was supported by a Fulbright Program grant sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State and administered by the Institute of International Education.
Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) 2021.