The purpose of Innuluataarneq research project is to develop, implement, evaluate, and disseminate a public health intervention in Greenland that focuses on Greenlandic ways of understanding and knowing about healthy behavior and sexually transmitted infections (STI). The target population for Innuluataarneq is 15 to 19 year old adolescents and their parents. Innuluataarneq will be conducted as an interdisciplinary international, collaborative community based participatory research (CBPR) study involving researchers and students from the United States, Canada, Denmark and Greenland. Innuluataarneq will be implemented in three communities in Greenland: Nuuk, Sisimut, and Tasiilaq. There are two components to Innulataarneq: 1) Component 1 will build capacity within Greenland to conduct CBPR projects that enhance community ownership in reducing STIs and empower communities in Greenland to partner with academic institutions to conduct research that resonates with Greenlandic knowledge and social and cultural practices; and 2) Component 2 will provide a socially and culturally relevant health education intervention to adolescents 15 to 19 years old and their parents in order to enhance awareness of STIs and their long term consequences
There are several elements to the intellectual merit of Innulataarneq. First, little is known about how cultural practices affect the transmission of STIs in the Arctic. Innulataarneq builds on our current STI research in Greenland, The Greenland Sexual Health Study, which is gathering information on the individual behaviors, social determinants, and cultural, historical, and political factors influencing the country?s high STI rates. Second, CBPR has not been practiced in Greenland to address any social science or health question. Innulataarneq?s CBPR approach advances our knowledge and understanding of the practical application of CBPR methodologies in a socially and culturally diverse Arctic community such as Greenland. Third, the reproductive future of Greenland is in jeopardy due to the countries high STI rates and low birth rates. Innulataarneq will explore Greenlandic ways of promoting educational efforts to prevent STI?s in order to secure Greenland?s reproductive future.
The relevance and importance of Innulataarneq to broader impacts in the field of social sciences and health related fields include the following: 1) Provide experience and training for students from indigenous populations in the United States, Canada and Greenland in the skills, techniques and knowledge needed to carry out community based participatory research on sexual health in Arctic communities; 2) Create a dialogue and build connections between institutions in the United States, Canada, and Greenland to foster a greater understanding of the importance of this health research in the Arctic; 3) Raise awareness about CBPR methods in Greenland, STIs, and culturally relevant ways of addressing this problem in an Arctic country; 4) Promote social science research that addresses health issues in Arctic communities; and 5) Documents and shares Greenlandic traditional knowledge and how it influences sexual behavior in an Arctic community.
Project Outcome Report – Inuulluataarneq NSF Award #: 0908151 The purpose of this study was to implement a sexual health behavioral intervention in Greenland in order to reduce STI rates among a population of Greenland youth. This behavioral intervention was called Inuulluataarneq (Having the Good Life). Inuulluataarneq’s objects included: 1) Increase Greenlandic youth’s overall knowledge about STIs and sexual health; 2) Increase parent/guardian-youth communication about topics related to STIs and sex; and 3) Increase consistent condom use among Greenlandic youth. Results indicated that the influence of having a parent/guardian to speak with about topics related to sex, including how to choose a partner, how to use a condom to prevent STIs and how to communicate about sex with a sex partner, are key protective factors in reducing STIs among Greenlandic youth. Furthermore parents/guardians reported that general communication with youth was somewhat easy. The parents/guardians reported that they would like to speak with their youth more often about sex and sexuality. They are concerned about pregnancy and they would like to see more collaborative partnerships in their communities to increase sexual health education for youth. The extent to which Innulluataarneq’s goals, objectives and activities response to the National Science Foundations broader impacts is outlined below. Advance Discovery and Understanding While Promoting Teaching, Training and Learning. Inuulluataarneq provided experience and training for students from indigenous populations in the United States, Canada and Greenland in the skills, techniques and knowledge needed to carry out community based participatory research on sexual health in Arctic communities. It was our intention that by involving students in all phases of the research project they learned CBPR strategies and effective methods of implementing sexual health CBPR projects that they could adopt for their own future work either in Greenland or in their home communities. Broaden Participation of Underrepresented Groups. Inuulluataarneq created a dialogue and built connections between institutions in the United States, Canada, Denmark and Greenland that fostered a greater understanding of the importance of sexual health research in the Arctic. Broad Dissemination to Enhance Scientific and Technological Understanding. We presented our research findings at international and national conferences each year of the project. In total eight presentations at academic conferences were presented. In addition numerous local meetings with held in Greenland with community members, community leaders and key stakeholders to discuss with them the progress of Inuulluataarneq and get feedback from them on the project’s research results and strategies. In addition six publications have appeared in peer review journals regarding the project’s research results. In addition educational materials on sexual health were created for the Greenlandic people and educational vignettes were designed, produced and aired on Greenlandic national television. Benefits to Society. Inuulluataarneq clearly demonstrated that among a young Inuit population living in remote sparsely populated Arctic communities increasing their ability to speak with a parent/guardian about sex can reduce sexual risk taking behaviors and STDs. Future areas of research in Greenland may consider further examination of family and kinship networks to promote sexually healthy decision making, consistent with traditional Greenlandic cultural practices in which a child is guided and taught by a collective of family members in a community. The use of qualitative methods more in keeping with traditional forms of communication and information sharing in Inuit populations may provide a more accurate description of the issues influencing health. These findings are consistent with an emerging concern that classic western health research methods, even CBPR, are not conducive to indigenous ways of conceptualizing, understanding and living in the world. In addition the results from Inuulluataarneq suggested that parents/guardians want to be engaged in raising sexually healthy youth. Research has shown that parents want their youth to be knowledgeable about sex, have clear values regarding sex and be sexually healthy. Our findings demonstrated that parents/guardians would like to be involved with schools, the health care system and other community agencies in communicating with youth about sex as well as being part of the development of STI prevention strategies. Thus providing mass screening and treatment campaigns or free, accessible condoms and STI treatment is only part of a much larger STI prevention strategy in Greenland. Future STI prevention efforts in Greenland would benefit from involving Greenlandic youth and their families in the design of community based sexual health education programs that address increasing communication skills in families about topics related to sex. Thus community based efforts that involve and empower families to educate their youth for prevention of sexual risk taking behaviors that may lead to STIs is a necessary area of future development in Greenland.
