Trauma a frequent experience on American Indian reservations

American Indians living on reservations are at high risk for being exposed to such trauma as witnessing a loved one's death or being the victim of a physical attack, according to research comparing trauma on two American Indian reservations to that in the general U.S. population.

Researchers interviewed about 3,100 tribal members age 15-54 about exposure to trauma and compared their answers to those collected from the general population. The results: almost 70 percent of American Indian men and women living on or within 20 miles of a reservation reported exposure to at least one trauma in their lifetime, compared to a national average of 50 percent for women and 60 percent for men.

"Much more remains to be discovered with respect to trauma and its potential contribution to well-documented disparities in health status and care among [American Indians]," the study's authors wrote. "Clearly, trauma…must figure more importantly than it has in our efforts to understand and ameliorate the health disparities that plague this special population."

[From: "The Social Epidemiology of Trauma in Two American Indian Reservation Populations." Contact: Spero M. Manson, PhD, University of Colorado, Department of Psychiatry, Denver, [email protected].]