Poor self-reported health and its association with biomarkers among Canadian Inuit

To determine the extent to which demographic characteristics, clinical measurements and biomarkers were associated with poor self-reported health (SRH) among Inuit adults in the Canadian Arctic.

Cross-sectional survey was adopted as the study design.

The International Polar Year Inuit Health Survey carried out in 36 Canadian Arctic communities in 2007 and 2008 included Inuit men and women, aged 18 years or older, recruited from randomly selected households. The main outcome measure was SRH, which was dichotomized into good health (excellent, very good and good responses) and poor health (fair and poor responses).

Of the 2,796 eligible households, 1,901 (68%) households and 2,595 participants took part in the survey. The weighted prevalence of poor SRH was 27.8%. Increasing age was significantly associated with poor SRH. The relative risk ratios for poor SRH was 2.0 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.3-3.1) for men aged 50 years or older and 2.3 (95% CI 1.7-3.0) for women aged 50 years or older, compared with men and women aged 29 years or younger. After adjusting for age, gender and body mass index, poor SRH was significantly associated with smoking status (odds ratio [OR]=1.5; CI 1.1-2.0), at-risk fasting glucose levels (≥ 6.1 mmol/L) (OR=2.5; 95%; CI 1.5-4.2) and elevated hs C-reactive protein levels (>3-≤ 10 mg/L) (OR=2.1; 95% CI 1.4-3.1). Poor SRH was also significantly associated with a hypertriglyceridemic waist phenotype (high-risk waist circumference ≥ 102 cm for men and ≥ 88 cm for women with high triglyceride levels, ≥ 1.7 mmol/L), adjusted for age and gender, OR=1.6; 95% CI 1.1-2.3.

Clinically relevant indicators of chronic disease risk were related to subjective assessment of SRH among Inuit.