Health profiles of First Nations children living on-reserve in Northern Ontario: a pooled analysis of survey data

• Published in: CMAJ Open
• Main Authors: Wabano, Mary Jo, McGregor, Leslie F., Beaudin, Roger, Jacko, Diane, McGregor, Lorrilee E., Kristensen-Didur, Sabine, Mishibinijima, Debbie, Usuba, Koyo, Young, Nancy L.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Joule Inc. or its licensors 2019
• Subjects: Research; Canada; First Nations
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6517124/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31088805; https://doi.org/10.9778/cmajo.20180128

BACKGROUND: The Aboriginal Children’s Health and Well-Being Measure (ACHWM) was developed to enable Aboriginal health leaders to gather information on the health of children at a local community level. This paper aims to describe the typical health profiles of First Nation children living on traditional territory as a reference to assist in the interpretation of ACHWM scores. METHODS: Three First Nations in Ontario, Canada, gathered health data from children using the ACHWM administered on Android tablets between 2013 and 2015. The survey data were previously analyzed to inform local health planning. These survey data were pooled to describe the distribution of ACHWM summary and quadrant scores from a larger sample and inform interpretation of ACHWM scores. RESULTS: ACHWM data from 196 participants (aged 7.6 to 21.7 yr) across 3 communities were included in the pooled sample. ACHWM summary scores ranged from 39.8 to 98.7 with a mean of 74.1 (95% confidence interval [CI] 72.5–75.7) and a maximum of 100. Strengths were reported in the spiritual (mean 78.7, 95% CI 76.7–80.8), physical (mean 77.1, 95% CI 75.1–79.0) and emotional (mean 74.4, 95% CI 72.5–76.3) quadrants. The greatest opportunity for improvement was in the mental (cognition) quadrant (mean 61.6, 95% CI 56.9–63.4). INTERPRETATION: This paper presents initial estimates for child health scores based on self-report from a large sample of First Nations children living on reserve. These results establish benchmarks to aid interpretation of the ACHWM scores in these and other communities and contexts in the future.