Grantee Research Project Results
2013 Progress Report: Tribal Environmental Public Health Indicators
EPA Grant Number: R834791Title: Tribal Environmental Public Health Indicators
Investigators: Donatuto, Jamie , Campbell, Larry
Institution: Swinomish Indian Tribal Community
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2013 (Extended to June 30, 2014)
Project Period Covered by this Report: July 1, 2013 through June 30,2014
Project Amount: $235,517
RFA: Exploring Linkages Between Health Outcomes and Environmental Hazards, Exposures, and Interventions for Public Health Tracking and Risk Management (2009) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Human Health
Objective:
The overarching goals of the project are to create and test environmental public health indicators (EPHIs) specific to Native American tribal communities in the Puget Sound/Salish Sea region of the Pacific Northwest. The hypothesis being tested is that the public health of Native American communities is more accurately evaluated when the health indicators employed reflect Native American definitions of health. The objectives of the proposed research are to:
(1) Establish a set of environmental public health indicators for Coast Salish communities in the Puget Sound region that reflect the communities’ meanings and prioritizations of health;
(2) Test the tribal-specific indicator set by employing it to assess the health status of the tribal communities; and,
(3) Evaluate the efficacy of the tribal-specific indicator set by reviewing the health status results with tribes.
Progress Summary:
The Swinomish Tribe, project lead, partnered with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, the Suquamish Tribe and the Stillaguamish Tribe for the project. The first objective (to establish a set of environmental public health indicators for Coast Salish communities in the Puget Sound region that reflect the communities’ meanings and prioritizations of health) was achieved in Year One of the project. The indicator set was named the Indigenous Health Indicators (IHIs).
The second objective (to test the tribal-specific indicator set by employing it to assess the health status of the tribal communities) and the third objective (to evaluate the efficacy of the tribal-specific indicator set by reviewing the health status results with tribes) were accomplished in Years 2 and 3 of the project with the five Tribes.
Results demonstrate a successful pilot-testing of the IHIs. The three criteria established prior to the indicator rankings exercise gauged the success of the approach:
- Do the rankings/weightings make sense in terms of expressing accurately what participants feel is important? Based on participants’ willingness to complete the questions and the positive feedback received after the workshop, the answer appears to be yes.
- Are there distinctions among participants in terms of how the indicators were ranked? Looking over the between-subject data, the answer is clearly yes.
- Are there distinctions across the two test cases? The answer is yes, both within each Tribe and across Tribes.
Overall, participants were supportive and understood that the results could help communities to generate and select among alternative projects or cleanup actions. There was general agreement among participants that not all the indicators, and not all of the specified components, were equally important in terms of helping to identify the key potential effects of a specific proposed resource development initiative or environmental management plan; instead, type and context of a proposed initiative (i.e., what type of actions might take place, what types of resources might be affected, what parties would be in charge) made a difference.
Dissemination of the project purpose, methods and results have occurred via the following avenues in Year 3: (1) the IHI website: http://www.swinomish-nsn.gov/ihi/; (2) draft and publication of a peer review Open Access article http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08920753.2014.923140#.U8Ybm6gdV0w; (3) draft and submission of a peer review article describing the purpose and methods of the project; (4) draft of a peer review article describing the results from each participating Tribe to be submitted before the end of 2014; and (5) ten oral presentations that at least in part mentioned the creation and testing of the IHIs.
Journal Articles on this Report : 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 3 publications | 3 publications in selected types | All 3 journal articles |
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Donatuto J, Grossman EE, Konovsky J, Grossman S, Campbell LW. Indigenous community health and climate change: integrating biophysical and social science indicators. Coastal Management 2014;42(4):355-372. |
R834791 (2013) R834791 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
Supplemental Keywords:
Risk assessment, risk management, seafood, fish consumption, indigenous knowledge, Traditional Environmental Knowledge, cultural impacts, human health, environmental health, community assessment, Native AmericansRelevant Websites:
http://www.swinomish-nsn.gov/ihi/
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.