Home/Topic Collection: Indigenous Populations and Injury Prevention

Topic Collection: Indigenous Populations and Injury Prevention

Indigenous Populations and Injury Prevention

Indigenous populations experience health disparities, with higher rates of illness, injury and lower life expectancy due to disadvantages and injustices. Urgent action requires further research into injury risk, prevention, management considering unique cultural factors.  This Topic Collection seeks contributions to progress injury prevention among indigenous communities around the world. Submissions Open | Submission Deadline: 3rd March 2025

Guest Editors

Zachary Yukio Kerr University of North Carolina North Carolina, USA ORCID logoorcid.org/0000-0003-1423-1259
Brett Shannon  University of Illinois - Chicago Chicago, USA ORCID logoorcid.org/0000-0002-6257-5315
Wendy Shields JHU, Bloomberg School of Public Health Maryland, USA ORCID logoorcid.org/0000-0001-5001-7810
Indigenous populations face several health-related issues. When compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts, Indigenous individuals have higher rates of diabetes and infectious disease onset, lower life expectancy, and less access to education and economic resources. These disparities can be attributed to social, economic, environmental and geographical disadvantages in addition to the historical links to discrimination and exclusion and have been associated with increased utilization of healthcare resources. Deaths from unintentional injuries remain significantly higher for Indigenous populations, particularly from motor vehicle crashes, poisoning and falls and suicide in young adults. Reducing the burden of injury and illness experienced by Indigenous individuals requires further building of the evidence base to inform policy and practice Currently, there is a dearth of knowledge in the scientific literature related to the injury risk, prevention, and management among the Indigenous populations. However, examinations of Indigenous population health must consider the unique social and cultural factors that may serve as barriers and facilitators to the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of health-related issues.  The goal of this Topic Collection is to solicit the contribution and submission of any articles and findings in injury prevention within the Indigenous populations.  We encourage research that provides insight into the following areas of interest:
  • Implementation of injury prevention within the social and cultural contexts existing within indigenous communities
  • The impact of historical and current marginalization and discrimination affects the prevention, identification, and management of injury within indigenous populations 
  • Examinations of injury prevention efforts that focus on: implementation science, knowledge translation, and/or community-based participatory research.
  • Applications of injury prevention theoretical frameworks that consider behavioural, interpersonal, organizational, cultural, and policy-driven factors within indigenous populations.
We aim to highlight the diversity within the Indigenous populations. This includes, but is not limited to:
  • First Nations, Inuit, and Métis individuals
  • American Indians and Alaska Natives
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia
  • Pacific Islander indigenous peoples, including but not limited to Māori, Native Hawaiians, American Samoans, and Chamorros
  • Latin American/Caribbean indigenous peoples
  • Indigenous peoples of Europe and Asia, including but not limited to Saamis and Nenets
  • Indigenous peoples of Africa, including but not limited to the San
Although there is discussion about who comprises Indigenous populations, we wish to highlight those groups of people that have historical accounts of marginalization due to colonization and cultural identities that shape their daily lives and social structures. With that said, we understand that denoting certain groups as Indigenous and others as not can itself be deemed discriminatory. We welcome open dialogue about this in our Topic Collection. Injury Prevention follows a hybrid publication model and authors can choose to pay an Article Processing Fee for open access publication. A number of institutions have an open access agreement with BMJ where the full cost of publishing can be covered; please view the list of institutions to which this applies. BMJ also offers full waivers for authors based in low income countries; please see further information on our waivers and discounts policy.
Please see the instructions for authors for submission requirements for each article type. To submit your article, please follow these instructions and select ‘Indigenous Populations and Injury Prevention’ as the Topic Collection.   All submitted articles will be subject to the journal's normal peer review process. The Editor in Chief is responsible for the content of this Topic Collection. Guest Editors will manage peer review, invite reviewers and make a recommendation, but the final decision on all manuscripts will be made by the Editor-in-Chief. Articles accepted for publication will be published upon acceptance. Visit our author hub for more information regarding the publication process for topic collections.  For any inquiries regarding this topic collection, please contact topic.collections@bmj.com. Keywords: First Nations, Indigenous, traditional knowledge, social customs, self-determination, collective rights