Native communities get help with health disparities

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) – Montana State University and its partners have received $20 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to address health disparities facing Native communities in Montana and Alaska.

University officials say the new American Indian-Alaska Native Clinical and Translational Research Program includes collaborators from Blackfeet Community College, the University of Montana, the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, the University of Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and the Southcentral Foundation.

Montana and Alaska both have large Native populations and they have disproportionately high Native health disparity rates.

According to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that American Indian and Alaska Native death rates were nearly 50 percent greater than non-Hispanic whites between 1999 and 2009.

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Information from: Bozeman Daily Chronicle, http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com