Construction of a database on health and living conditions of the Swedish Sami population

• Research on the health and living conditions of the Swedish Sami population was initiated at the Southeffi Lapland Research Department in 1998 with the objective to collect and analyse data on lifestyle,environmental exposure, and incidence of various diseases and risk factors that could be used to promote a healthy Sami population. In order to analyse the epidemio.logical data on the Sami population that already exists in national demographic and health registers, a specific database has been constructed containing Swedish Sami. The basis for the construction of the database is the two definitions of Sami identity that are found in Swedish law and are used to regulate the right to register to the electoral register of the Sami parliament, and to regulate the right to breed reindeers. The registers that are connected to these defInitions functions as index registers in the creation of the database. That is, they serve as the starting point from which the expansion of the database takes place. By flnding all household members of the same household as the index persons, the database has expanded from 10 000 individuals in the index registers to a total of more than 150 000 individuals. Local kinship register within the database has also been established making the database more functional in forming Sami cohorts bUilt on family relations. A control part of the database consisting of non-Sami individuals was also formed. The Sami index regi~ters were matched with regard to sex, age and living area to form an index register of non Sami controls which then was extended in a similar way as for the Sami part of the database. An example on how the database can be used is the reconstruction of a Sami population, built on family relations that produced a Sami population that for 1998 amounted to about 44 000 individuals. By opening up new possibilities in seeking information and knowledge, the database can hopefully be come a important tool in the work to improve the health and living conditions of the Sami population of Sweden.

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