q 1998 Human Sciences Press, Inc. 59 Journal of Community Health, Vol. 23, No. 1, February 1998 PROBLEMS IN SEARCH OF SOLUTIONS: HEALTH AND CANADIAN ABORIGINALS K. Bruce Newbold, PhD ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to explore the health status of Canadian Aboriginals, along with their perceived community health problems and proposed solutions to these issues. Data are drawn from the 1991 Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS), which is a weighted random sample of the Aboriginal population. Comparisons were made with re- spect to group identity (North American Indian, MÂ etis and Inuit) and geographic location (reserve, urban, rural and North) and across a series of health status and health care use indicators. Analysis reveals that geo- graphic location, as compared with Aboriginal identity, appears to have a large impact with respect to health status and use of physician services. On-reserve Aboriginals, for example, reported a lower likelihood of hav- ing seen a physician and were more likely to rank their health as fair or poor. Location also influenced perceived community health problems and solutions. Self-identified problems included drugs, cancer and ar- thritis, while corresponding solutions included education, counseling and service access. Although the problems and solutions were relatively consistent across space, they too varied in their importance. In general, the results tend to reinforce the determinants of health framework, sug- gesting that the provision of health services is insufficient to remove health disparities on its own. Instead, broader social-welfare provisions must be considered. INTRODUCTION Irrespective of the indicator used, Canadian Aboriginals tend to bear a disproportionate burden of illness, an outcome linked to their eco- nomic and social conditions as well as a history of oppression and mar- ginalization. 1,2 Despite generous government health programs, disparities in health between both the Aboriginal population and the overall Cana- dian population, as well as between Aboriginal groups, remain. Typically, K. Bruce Newbold, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, Univer- sity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Funding for this research was provided by the University of Illinois Research Board and the Department of Geography. This analysis is based on Statistics Canada microdata file APS-Adults, which contain anonymized data collected in the 1991 Aboriginal Peoples Survey. All computations on these data were prepared by the author and the responsibility for the use and interpretation of these data is entirely that of the author. Requests for reprints should be addressed to: K. Bruce Newbold, PhD, Department of Geog- raphy, University of Illinois, 607 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61801.