ICHS awarded grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The UAA's Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies (ICHS) was recently awarded a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop a surveillance and response system in three ecologically distinct regions of Alaska to promote climate change observation and adaptation planning. The project will train lay observers in Southeast, Interior and Northwest Alaska to collect structured observations of climate change related events of public health significance. The observations will be integrated and analyzed at the ICHS, and the results will be provided to community stakeholders along with recommendations for adapting to any health threats identified.

Climate records in Alaska indicate that the average temperature in interior portions of the state have warmed seven degrees Fahrenheit since the 1950s. There have been a number of documented changes related to this warming trend, including the degradation of permafrost, loss of sea ice, and warming and acidification of seawater. Residents of the state provide anecdotal reports of unusual shifts in the behavior and health of fish and game, subsidence of ground and surface water levels, and increasingly extreme local weather patterns. There is a need for a rigorous approach to the collection, distribution and analysis of such anecdotal reports. Engaging Alaskans as lay observers of climate change will provide government officials with an important early warning of local events of public health significance. It will also represent a network for the dissemination of informed and culturally appropriate risk communications to guide adaptation planning to mitigate the impact of climate change on Alaskan population health.

On Oct. 7-8, the ICHS and UAA Chancellor's Office hosted a colloquium of government and academic stakeholders, including Health Canada, Trent University, CDC, EPA, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and University of Alaska researchers. Participants initiated an on-going dialogue regarding the direct and indirect effects of climate change on human health in Alaska and the circumpolar north. The colloquium participants developed draft categories of climate change related effects and associated health outcomes. These categories and metrics will be refined in collaboration with community stakeholders to develop the surveillance instruments to be applied in this and similar studies across the circumpolar north.

Tenaya Sunbury is the project lead and postdoctoral research fellow at ICHS and a recent graduate from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.  Her overall research interests lie in identifying specific social and physical area characteristics and the mechanisms by which these area characteristics influence individual health behaviors and health outcomes. She is excited about being at UAA and feels that Alaska, because of its socio-political and economic history and culture, provides a unique opportunity to examine how area characteristics influence health. Her research goals include improving rural health and using an interdisciplinary approach to develop appropriate structural health interventions through policy changes and community collaborations. Her past projects included spatial prediction models of air pollution and identifying urban-rural differences in driving behaviors and injury outcomes.

For more information, contact Dr. Tenaya Sunbury at sunbury@uaa.alaska.edu or (907)786-6585.

ICHS was created by the Alaska State Legislature in 1988 to provide support and coordination for health research, information and training in order to develop new solutions to health problems in Alaska and circumpolar regions. ICHS maintains collaborative relationships with organizations within and outside the University, especially working closely with faculty to provide technical assistance and support to increase the capacity within the state to address the health needs of all Alaskans. ICHS has an external advisory group composed of representatives from the state, municipal, and tribal public health and medical institutions. The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts members reviews deliverables and comment on prospective lines of research.

ICHS uses a Population Health Promotion approach to developing the Institute's research agenda, which focuses on upstream social and physical determinants of Alaska population health. Based on a meta-analysis conducted in 2009, ICHS researchers identified and prioritized these determinants and are now conducting projects on several of the highest priority determinants. So in addition to a study on climate change, ICHS is conducting two projects related to access to quality health care and one related to addiction and substance abuse.

• Dr. Driscoll and Bruce Dotterer of ICHS worked with the Institute for Social and Economic Research on a $50K RWJF grant of how health concerns and health care needs influence rural to urban migration decisions in Alaska (access to quality health care).
• Dr. Driscoll and Mr. Dotterer, ICHS, are working with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) on a $1.25 million NIDA grant to prevent youth's use of inhalants and other harmful legal products in remote rural communities across Alaska (addiction).
• Drs. Driscoll and Harris, ICHS, are working with the Southcentral Foundation on a $600K evaluation for AHRQ of the culturally competent health care model employed at the Alaskan Native Medical Center (access to quality health care).

Learn more about the ICHS on its website.