Prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus Among the James Bay Cree of Northern Quebec

Overview

Journal CMAJ

Date 1993 Aug 1

PMID 8339176

Citations 15

Authors

P Brassard

E Robinson

C LaVallee

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence of diabetes mellitus among the James Bay Cree in northern Quebec.

Design: Chart survey of physician-diagnosed cases of diabetes. The biochemical criteria of the World Health Organization were used to confirm the diagnoses.

Setting: Eight James Bay Cree communities: six remote and two rural.

Subjects: All James Bay Cree with diabetes whose names were in a chronic disease registry or on a diabetes clinic list kept at each community clinic.

Outcome Measures: Prevalence rates, both crude and standardized to the 1986 Canadian population, were estimated by sex, age group and type of diabetes.

Results: A total of 235 cases of diabetes were confirmed, for a crude prevalence of 2.7%. The age-standardized rate of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus was 6.6% among people 20 years and over. The prevalence increased as the latitude decreased.

Conclusions: Our crude prevalence resembles that in similar native linguistic and cultural groups elsewhere in Canada. Diabetes is becoming an important disease in the Cree population of Quebec. A better understanding of the sociocultural changes in this population is necessary.

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