NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area

Tags: health, social sciences, smoking

Objective(s): To use Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) to empower people in Aklavik and Holman to take full control over tobacco-related research and local community action plans to reduce tobacco abuse over 5 years.

Project Description: The objective of this project is to use Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) to empower people in Aklavik and Holman to take full control over tobacco-related research and local community action plans to reduce tobacco abuse over 5 years. Smoking is a major preventable cause of death and disease in the NWT. Public health officials have tried many different approaches to motivate Inuit, Inuvialuit and First Nations community members to quit, and not to start smoking, with little real success. The Canadian Tobacco Control Research Institute is funding Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) projects to try to get better results. CBPR involves a genuine partnership and collaboration between community partners and "outside" researchers. The approach this research team will take is to create community-based structures called CBPR Groups that will take full control for the tobacco-related research (baseline and annual surveys) and resulting community action plans to reduce tobacco abuse. They will work in 2 Inuvialuit communities over 5 years, and in Year 5, will host a regional conference to which they’ll invite members of all 6 Inuvialuit communities to share their results and experiences, and to determine some “best practices” for tobacco control suitable for application in other Inuit and First Nations communities. Members of the CBPR Groups will be selected during summer/fall 2007, trained about tobacco and health, CBPR, and how to design survey instruments, and to collect, analyze and interpret data for themselves. Each team will then conduct a baseline community survey about tobacco use in Year 1, and subsequent annual surveys will be done to measure the impact of various community-controlled interventions designed by the teams to reduce tobacco uptake and abuse. Results from the surveys will be shared with community members, and the teams will then work with community members to plan and implement tobacco reduction strategies. A detailed description of Methods and Activities in the NWT is available from the research manager (Dr. Merryl Hammond) or on your online ARI account (login at www.nwtresearch.com/polar). Members of the CBPR Groups will communicate results with community members as soon as they have analyzed and interpreted the results and produced user-friendly materials (e.g. posters, flyers, radio announcements). They will go on local radio and offer community meetings to share results, and then engage community members in a process of planning culturally-appropriate and locally-relevant community action plans to reduce tobacco use. Fieldwork will be conducted from September 14 to December 31, 2007 in Aklavik and Holman.