April 23, 2012
The International Association for Indigenous Aging (IA2 ) has signed a contract with the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors for “Geographic Distribution of American Indian and Alaska Natives in Nursing Homes.”
Using the Minimum Data Set, this project will portray through the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), maps of where American Indians and Alaska Native nursing home residents reside. The maps will show where the American Indian Reservations are and their proximity to specific nursing homes across the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii.) A GIS analysis will include the testing of whether the location of the nursing home in terms of distance from the reservation correlates with the status of AI/AN nursing home residents.
IA2 also recently signed a subcontract with the Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center to work on the “Oklahoma Center on American Indian Diabetes Health Disparities” project. The project will evaluate the effectiveness of the Eagle Books series on diabetes developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Eagle Books are a series of four children’s books for Native American children and others interested in healthy living. The books promote type 2 diabetes prevention and encourage a return to traditional ways, including physical activity and healthy eating. The series was developed by CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation in collaboration with the Tribal Leaders Diabetes Committee and the Indian Health Service, in response to the burden of diabetes among Native Americans and the lack of diabetes prevention materials for children. (https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/ndwp/index.html)
