Summer Institute in
Infectious Diseases 2005
IMPACTS OF
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
ON LOCAL + GLOBAL COMMUNITIES
Monday, May 30 – Friday, June 3, 2005
Biography:
Brenda Elias is the Associate Director of Research at the Centre for Aboriginal Health Research (CAHR) at the University of Manitoba, Department of Community Health Sciences. She has worked extensively with First Nations and Inuit communities in the area of health infostructures and the social determinants of health.
Her area of specialization is Aboriginal health epidemiology/methodologies, with a particular emphasis on gender health. Her PhD dissertation examines the extent to which the social environment in associated to the health of First Nation communities. From this work and other studies, she has developed expertise in multilevel quantitative studies that utilize qualitative data to further contextualize the social, cultural, economic, political and historical determinants of health in Aboriginal communities.
She is one of the lead investigators of the CAHR Aboriginal Health Survey Support Program, which supports the development of qualitative and quantitative approaches to measuring the social determinants of Aboriginal peoples' health at the community, regional, national and international level. She is also the Principal Investigator of the Manitoba First Nations Regional Longitudinal Health Survey (MFNRLHS), which is a comprehensive social determinant study of Manitoba First Nation children, youth and adults. The survey addresses a wide range of health outcomes/risk factors and a multitude of social determinants such as spirituality, cultural practices, residential school, social support, health service utilization, social economic well being, economic insecurity, housing, social capital, resiliency (youth survey), and early childhood development (children's survey). The survey also includes a First Nation women's health survey component that is comparative to the Australian Women's Longitudinal Health Survey.