Case 2: Globalization, Gender, Indigenous Peoples, And Type 2 Diabetes
Health disparities
You are a medical student doing a rural elective in family medicine. There is a large First Nations community just outside the town in which you are placed. You and your preceptor attend a multi-disciplinary clinic on the reserve once a week. Abequa is booked for the next clinic. She is a 15-year old girl who has recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus. During her last visit, she left a list of questions about diabetes that she’d like answered. Your preceptor suggests you read up on diabetes in order to answer Abequa’s questions. The list of questions is as follows:
It seems like a lot of people here are sick with diseases like diabetes. Is it like this off the reserve?
At school, a lot of my girl friends have diabetes, too. We looked on the Internet and read that diabetes affects men and women equally. Is this true?
Why do Aboriginal peoples have so much diabetes?
