Publications by authors named "Leona Star"

Article Synopsis
  • Differential access to healthcare has led to worse health outcomes for First Nations in Canada, prompting partnerships during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure they received timely and culturally safe vaccinations.
  • A study analyzed data from almost 115,000 First Nations individuals and over 1.2 million others in Manitoba to compare vaccination rates, finding First Nations were prioritized for faster vaccine uptake.
  • Results indicated that First Nations faced higher COVID-19 infection rates than other Manitobans, highlighting ongoing healthcare disparities even amid vaccination efforts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Since 2004, the Children's Oral Health Initiative (COHI) has been working in many First Nations and Inuit communities in Canada to address oral health disparities, specifically early childhood caries (ECC). The COHI community-based approach improves early childhood oral health (ECOH) by balancing prevention with minimally invasive dentistry. The goal is to reduce the burden of oral disease, mainly by minimizing the need for surgery.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has called for better reporting of health disparities between First Nations people and other Canadians to close gaps in health outcomes. We sought to evaluate changes in these disparities using indicators of health and health care use over the last 2 decades.

Methods: We used linked, whole-population, administrative claims data from the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy for fiscal years 1994/95 to 1998/99 and 2012/13 to 2016/17.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Though qualitative methods are often an appropriate Indigenous methodology and have dominated the literature on Indigenous research methods, they are not the only methods available for health research. There is a need for decolonizing and Indigenizing quantitative research methods, particularly in the discipline of epidemiology, to better address the public health needs of Indigenous populations who continue to face health inequities because of colonial systems, as well as inaccurate and incomplete data collection about themselves. For the last two decades, researchers in colonized countries have been calling for a specifically Indigenous approach to epidemiology that recognizes the limits of Western epidemiological methods, incorporates more Indigenous research methodologies and community-based participatory research methods, builds capacity by training more Indigenous epidemiologists, and supports Indigenous self-determination.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: The high prevalence and severity of caries among Canadian First Nations children is a growing concern. Dental surgery in hospital is often necessary to treat the signs of decay but does not address the underlying factors contributing to its development. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and risk factors of caregiver-reported Baby Bottle Tooth Decay (BBTD), or Severe Early Childhood Caries (S-ECC), among preschool children recruited in Phase 2 of the First Nations Regional Longitudinal Health Survey (RHS).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_session4ad109vhot0uhe0v0p3c94u99vddeslp): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once