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. 2018 Dec;77(1):1422671.
doi: 10.1080/22423982.2017.1422671.

Disproportionately higher unintentional injury mortality among Alaska Native people, 2006-2015

Gretchen Day  1 , Peter Holck  1 , Hillary Strayer  2 , Kathryn Koller  1 , Timothy Thomas  1
Affiliations

Disproportionately higher unintentional injury mortality among Alaska Native people, 2006-2015

Gretchen Day et al. Int J Circumpolar Health. 2018 Dec.

Abstract

We compared rates of unintentional injury (UI) deaths (total and by injury category) among Alaska Native (AN) people to rates of U.S. White (USW) and Alaska White (AKW) populations during 2006-2015. The mortality data for AN and AKW populations were obtained from Alaska Bureau of Vital Statistics and USW mortality data were obtained from WISQARS, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention online injury data program. AN and AKW rates were age-adjusted to the U.S. 2000 Standard Population and rate ratios (RR) were calculated. AN people had higher age-adjusted total UI mortality than the USW (RR = 2.6) and AKW (RR = 2.3) populations. Poisoning was the leading cause of UI death among AN people (35.9 per 100,000), more than twice that of USW (RR = 2.9) and AKW (RR = 2.5). Even greater disparities were found between AN people and USW for: natural environment (RR = 20.7), transport-other land (RR = 12.4), and drowning/submersion (RR = 9.1). Rates of AN UI were markedly higher than rates for either USW or AKW. Identifying all the ways in which alcohol/drugs contribute to UI deaths would aid in prevention efforts. All transportation deaths should be integrated into one fatality rate to provide more consistent comparisons between groups.

Keywords: Alaska Native; Mortality; Poisoning; Unintentional Injury; Urban-Rural.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Comparison of age-adjusted rates for leading categories of unintentional injury mortality.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Rate ratios comparing AIAN to Alaska White and US White populations for leading categories of unintentional injury mortality.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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