Trauma Common Feature of American Indian Life

[The Straight Story]

Trauma Common Feature of American Indian Life

Reuters Health

Monday, May 30, 2005

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More than two-thirds of American Indians are exposed to some type of trauma during their lives, a higher rate than that seen in most other Americans, new research reports.

"American Indians live in adverse environments that place them at high risk for exposure to trauma and harmful health sequelae," write Dr. Spero M. Manson and colleagues in the American Journal of Public Health.

Previous research has shown that American Indians have a two-fold higher rate of violent victimization than the national average, and are more likely to die from motor vehicle accidents, hypothermia, drowning, falls, poisoning and burns.

For the current study, the researchers from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Aurora and Denver interviewed 3084 American Indians between the ages of 15 and 57 enrolled in a southwest tribe and two closely related northern plains tribes.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_24951.html