Publications

The foods we eat contain microorganisms that we ingest alongside the food. Industrialized food systems offer great advantages from a safety point of view, but have also been accused of depleting the diversity of the human microbiota with negative implications for human health. In contrast, artisanal traditional foods are potential sources of a diverse food microbiota. Traditional foods of the Greenlandic Inuit are comprised of animal-sourced foods prepared in the natural environment and are often consumed raw. These foods, some of which are on the verge of extinction, have not previously been microbiologically character- ized. We mapped the microbiota of foods stemming from traditional Inuit land-based hunting activities. The foods included in the current study are dried muskox and caribou meat, cari- bou rumen and intestinal content as well as larval parasites from caribou hides, all traditional Inuit foods. This study shows that traditional drying methods are efficient for limiting micro- bial growth through desiccation. The results also show the rumen content of the caribou to be a highly diverse source of microbes with potential for degradation of plants. Finally, a number of parasites were shown to be included in the biodiversity of the assessed traditional foods. Taken together, the results map out a diverse source of ingested microbes and para- sites that originate from the natural environment. These results have implications for under- standing the nature-sourced traditional Inuit diet, which is in contrast to current day diet recommendations as well as modern industrialized food systems.

Gennem de seneste årtier er den sociale ulighed i Grønland steget. Velfærdsinstitutionerne har overtaget mange ansvarsområder som før var familiernes, hvilket kan true børns trivsel og sundhed, dels fordi der er behov for at forældre også tager ansvar, dels fordi velfærdsinstitutioners logik er at behandle sig ud af problemer. Kapitlets pointe er at institutionerne må påtage sig opgaven med at inddrage forældrene og den øvrige lokalbefolkning i løsningen af velfærdsproblemer med fokus på lokale ressourcer, det vil sige gennem sundhedsfremmende tiltag. På den måde kan institutionerne støtte befolkningen i at tage del i ansvaret for sundhed og trivsel på længere sigt. Dette kræver samarbejde mellem befolkningen, institutionerne, organisationerne og forskningen om at skabe selvforvaltning og et godt liv i lokalsamfundene.

Sundhedsforskning i Grønland rummer udfordringer som vestlige videnskabsetiske retningslinjer har svært ved at håndtere på en måde så forskningen kan medvirke til at forbedre befolkningens sundhedstilstand. Koloniseringen i Grønland har, ligesom kolonisering blandt oprindelige befolkninger andre steder i verden, medført sociale problemer som følge af blandt andet tab af identitet og værdier samt ansvarsfratagelse. Vestligt orienterede sundhedssystemer, med deres fokus på helbred og behandling, kan vanskeligt inddrage sociokulturelle faktorers betydning for livskvalitet, og tilgangen stemmer dårligt overens med befolkningens værdier og opfattelser af et godt liv.

Ligesom sundhedsvæsenet er også sundhedsforskningen behandlingsorienteret. Derfor er der brug for at uddanne grønlandske forskere fordi de med deres kendskab til landet og befolkningen kan sætte helbredsproblemer ind i deres sociokulturelle sammenhænge og på den måde forske på et etisk forsvarligt grundlag. Denne forskningsmæssige kapacitetsopbygning foregår bl.a. i samarbejde med udenlandske forskere i regi af Grønlands Center for Sundhedsforskning ved Ilisimatusarfik.

Objectives: Patient experiences with health systems constitute a crucial pillar of quality care. Across the Arctic, patients’ interactions with the healthcare system are influenced by challenges of access, historical inequities and social determinants. This scoping review sought to describe the range and nature of peer-reviewed literature on patient experience studies conducted within the circumpolar region.

Design: In a partnership between Danish/Greenlandic, Canadian and American research teams, a scoping review of published research exploring patient experiences in circumpolar regions was undertaken.

Data sources: Seven electronic databases were queried: MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, ‘Global Health 1910 to 2019 Week 11’, CINAHL, PsycINFO and SveMed+.

Eligibility criteria: Articles were eligible for inclusion if they (a) took place in the circumpolar region, (b) reported patients’ perspective and (c) were focussed primarily on patient experiences with care, rather than satisfaction with treatment outcome.

Data extraction and synthesis: Title and abstract screening, full-text review and data extraction was conducted by four researchers. Bibliometric information such as publication date and country of origin was extracted, as was information regarding study design and whether or not the article contained results relevant to the themes of Indigenous values, rural and remote context, telehealth and climate change. Two researchers then synthesised and characterised results relevant to these themes.

Results: Of the 2824 articles initially found through systematic searches in seven databases, 96 articles were included for data extraction. Findings from the review included unique features related to Indigenous values, rural and remote health, telehealth and climate change.

Conclusions: The review findings provide an overview of patient experiences measures used in circumpolar nations. These findings can be used to inform health system improvement based on patient needs in the circumpolar context, as well as in other regions that share common features. This work can be further contextualized through Indigenous methodologies such as sharing circles and community based participatory methods.

Nabo er et projekt, der blev lanceret under det svenske formandskab i Nordisk Ministerråd 2018. Projektet ledes af den svenske Myndigheten för ungdoms- och civilsamhällesfrågor i perioden 2018-2020 og sigter mod at skabe nordiske unges perspektiver på det sociale inklusion. Unges stemmer høres i spørgsmål om deres liv. og baseret på denne viden, får de muligheden for at deltage i og påvirke politiske beslutninger.

Unge mennesker bliver bedt om at beskrive deres hverdag og hvordan de oplever deres muligheder og forhindringer. Fra deres historier bygger Nabo en ramme af succesfaktorer for social integration i de nordiske lande.

Denne rapport er baseret på fokusgruppeinterviews med unge mennesker forskellige steder i Grønland. Lignende undersøgelser gennemføres i de andre nordiske lande på Færøerne og Åland.