A large study shows that indigenous people around the world have far worse outcomes than others in terms of several health measures.

Health differences between several indigenous populations and the rest of the population in 23 countries were recently studied in a large study just published in the journal The Lancet (1). The study is based on data from 28 different indigenous populations, representing a total of approximately 154 million people for the period 1997 – 2014. This corresponds to approximately half of the planet’s total indigenous population. With the exception of the Greenland Inuit, all indigenous peoples were minorities in the countries where they live.

Life expectancy was significantly lower than that of the rest of the population in 15 of the 18 indigenous populations for which data were available. The biggest difference concerns the Baka people in Cameroon and the Maasai people in Kenya, with respectively 21.5% and 10% lower life expectancy than the rest of the population. In the high-income countries of Canada and Australia, large differences were also found, with life expectancy 12.5% ​​and 10% lower among indigenous people.

Infant mortality was also higher among indigenous peoples, except in Sweden, Chile and Hawaii. Regarding maternal mortality, the figures in many countries were too low for reliable calculations, but they were significantly higher among indigenous peoples in Australia, Colombia, New Zealand and Panama. In Panama, the risk of dying from pregnancy or childbirth was more than six times higher among indigenous women than among other women in the country. A significantly higher incidence of childhood malnutrition, childhood obesity, and adult obesity was also found in approximately half of the population groups included in the study.

The researchers behind the study believe there is a great need for targeted measures to improve the health of the world’s indigenous people. They also worry that Norway, Sweden and Denmark have legal bans against collecting data based on ethnicity, making it difficult to discover differences.