Caring for American Indian and Alaska Native Children and Adolescents.

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations have substantial health inequities, and most of their disease entities begin in childhood. In addition, AI/AN children and adolescents have excessive disease rates compared with the general pediatric population. Because of this, providers of pediatric care are in a unique position not only to attenuate disease incidence during childhood but also to improve the health status of this special population as a whole. This policy statement examines the inequitable disease burden observed in AI/AN youth, with a focus on toxic stress, mental health, and issues related to suicide and substance use disorder, risk of and exposure to injury and violence in childhood, obesity and obesity-related cardiovascular risk factors and disease, foster care, and the intersection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and Two-Spirit and AI/AN youth. Opportunities for advocacy in policy making also are presented. Copyright © 2021 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Citation

Shaquita Bell, Jason F Deen, Molly Fuentes, Kelly Moore, COMMITTEE ON NATIVE AMERICAN CHILD HEALTH. Caring for American Indian and Alaska Native Children and Adolescents. Pediatrics. 2021 Apr;147(4)

Mesh Tags

PMID: 33753539

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