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Review
. 2018 Apr 16:39:5.
doi: 10.1186/s40985-018-0085-8. eCollection 2018.

Three lifestyle-related issues of major significance for public health among the Inuit in contemporary Greenland: a review of adverse childhood conditions, obesity, and smoking in a period of social transition

Peter Bjerregaard  1   2 , Christina V L Larsen  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Three lifestyle-related issues of major significance for public health among the Inuit in contemporary Greenland: a review of adverse childhood conditions, obesity, and smoking in a period of social transition

Peter Bjerregaard et al. Public Health Rev. .

Abstract

Greenland is a country in transition from a colonial past with subsistence hunting and fishing to an urban Nordic welfare state. Epidemiological transition from infectious to chronic diseases has been evident since the 1950s. Ninety percent of the population is Inuit. We studied three public health issues based on published literature, namely adverse childhood experiences, addictive behavior, and suicide; diet and obesity; and smoking. Alcohol consumption was high in the 1970s and 1980s with accompanying family and social disruption. This is still a cause of poor mental health and suicides in the generations most affected. The diet is changing from a traditional diet of fish and marine mammals to imported food including food items rich in sugar and fat from domestic animals, and the level of physical activity is decreasing with an ensuing epidemic rise in obesity. The prevalence of smoking is high at around 60% among both men and women and is only slowly decreasing. Smoking shows large social variation, and tobacco-related diseases are widespread. The diseases and conditions outlined above all contribute towards a low life expectancy at birth-69 years for men and 74 years for women in 2011-2015-compared with 78 and 84 years for men and women, respectively, on average in the European countries. The translation of government public health programs into local activities needs strengthening, and it must be realized that the improvement of public health is a long-term process.

Keywords: Alcohol; Diet; Greenland; Inuit; Obesity; Smoking; Suicide.

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Conflict of interest statement

Not applicable. This is a review of previously published papers.Not applicable.The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Map of Greenland with communities according to size. Villages with less than 100 inhabitants are not shown
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Mortality from selected causes in Greenland 1924–2014. Adjusted for age and sex. Updated from [5, 7]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Chief Medical Officer. Annual Report from the Chief Medical Officer: 1951-1967.
    1. Young TK, Bjerregaard P, editors. Health transitions in Arctic peoples. Toronto: University of Toronto Press; 2008.

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