The Navajo Health and Nutrition Survey: Research That Can Make a Difference

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Abstract
Research among American Indian populations has often not been tied directly to programs intended to improve the health status of the populations studied. Consequently, medical research has often been seen by American Indians and Alaska Natives as exploitation. In the past 100 years, there have been over 1200 studies of subjects and topics relating to clinical and health status investigations of the Navajo (Indian Health Service 1992). Research among the Navajo has been for many purposes, including anthropologic descriptive studies, studies of unusual occurrences of diseases and even randomized trials to test new vaccines. In the past, research was often done on small convenience samples, resulting in too little useful information for the Navajo people or for the programs that serve them.