The health of indigenous peoples

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7388.510

BMJ 2003;326:510-511 ( 8 March )

Editorials

The health of indigenous peoples

Depends on genetics, politics, and socioeconomic factors

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

When launching the international decade for the world's indigenous peoples in 1994, the president of the United Nations GeneralAssembly warned of the dire circumstances facing indigenous peoples:"Their social structures and lifestyles have suffered the repercussionsof modern development."¹ Although there is no single definitionof indigenous peoples, an ancient relationship with a definedterritory and ethnic distinctiveness are two distinguishing features.There are some 5000 indigenous groups with a total populationof about 200 million, or around 4% of the global population.²

The 1999 Declaration on the Health and Survival of Indigenous Peoples by the World Health Organization proposed a definitionof indigenous health: "Indigenous peoples' concept of health andsurvival is both a collective and an individual inter-generationalcontinuum encompassing a holistic perspective incorporating fourdistinct shared dimensions of life. These dimensions are the spiritual,the intellectual, physical, and emotional. Linking these fourfundamental dimensions, health and survival manifests itself on. . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

Technorati What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

Holt, S, Timu-Parata, C, Ryder-Lewis, S, Weatherall, M, Beasley, R (2005). Efficacy of bupropion in the indigenous Maori population in New Zealand. Thorax 60: 120-123 [Abstract] [Full text]
Ring, I., Brown, N. (2003). The health status of indigenous peoples and others. BMJ 327: 404-405 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Australian Aboriginal Health: Thomas J P Verberne
bmj.com, 7 Mar 2003 [Full text]
Indigenous health � inequality frameworks and identity construction should be addressed: Niyi Awofeso, et al.
bmj.com, 11 Mar 2003 [Full text]
Who are we?: Guillermo A Herrera Taracena
bmj.com, 19 Mar 2003 [Full text]
Re: Australian Aboriginal Health: Judie Gade
bmj.com, 3 May 2003 [Full text]
Health of indigenous people: Ibrahim M Zardawi, et al.
bmj.com, 14 May 2003 [Full text]