CMAJ © 2010 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.607.2937; http://www.cmaj.ca/content/early/2010/01/18/cmaj.090846.full.pdf

The global epidemic of type 2 diabetes mellitus dis-proportionately affects indigenous and developingpopulations.1 Although genotypic variants related to energy balance may underlie this epidemic,2 the rapid emer-gence of type 2 diabetes in genetically diverse populations worldwide is most likely caused by environmental factors. Increasing rates of type 2 diabetes among Canada’s First Nations people, for example, parallel an epidemic of over-weight and obesity that has coincided with socio-cultural disruption and a loss of traditional lifestyles.3 In Saskatchewan in 1937, diabetes was not detected among the 1500 First Nations people who underwent a tuberculosis survey.4 By 1990, almost 10 % of the province’s First Nations adults had diabetes;5 by 2006, the proportion was over 20%,6 while it remained at about 6 % in the general population.5,6 Although an increased prevalence of diabetes among First Nations people has also been documented in other Canadian