Climate change and natural resource exploitation can affect Indigenous people’s well-being by reducing access to ecosystem services, in turn impeding transmission of traditional knowledge and causing mental health problems. We used a questionnaire based on the Environmental Distress Scale (EDS) and the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10) to examine the impacts of environmental changes on 251 members of four Indigenous communities in the eastern Canadian boreal forest. We also considered the potential mitigating effects of sociodemographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, parenthood, and time spent on the land) and protective factors (i.e., health, quality of life, resilience, life on the land, life in the community, and support from family and friends). Using linear regression, model selection, and multi-model inference, we show that the felt impacts of environmental changes increased with age but were lower for participants with higher quality of life. The effect of resilience was opposite to expectations: more resilient participants felt more impacts. This could be because less resilient individuals ceased to go on the land when environmental changes exceeded a given threshold; thus, only the most resilient participants could testify to the impacts of acute changes. Further research will be needed to test this hypothesis.

Purpose

Aboriginal people in Canada are disproportionately affected by chronic illnesses, compared to non-Aboriginal Canadians. The purpose of this review was to determine whether differences exist between the two groups with respect to chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) in order to better inform clinical practice and to identify research gaps.

Data sources

Four electronic databases were searched for the period of 1990–2015.

Study selection

Only English and French language original studies that examined CNCP prevalence, assessment tools and beliefs among Aboriginal people in Canada were considered.

Data extraction

Data extracted included Aboriginal group, geographic location, study setting and pain definition (for prevalence studies only).

Results of data synthesis

A total of 11 studies matched the selection criteria: 10 reported estimates of chronic pain prevalence among Aboriginal people in Canada, 1 was about a culturally adapted pain assessment tool, and no study was found about CNCP beliefs within Aboriginal people.

Conclusion

CNCP among Aboriginal people is still a largely unexplored research field. The limited evidence available so far does not allow us to conclude that CNCP affects a higher proportion of Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal people in Canada. However, arthritis, a specific condition associated with chronic pain, is more prevalent in Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal people. Additional research is needed on other CNCP types and conditions. Furthermore, pain assessment tools are not culturally adapted and clinicians should inquire more about the beliefs of Aboriginal patients to make them feel safer and to better target interventions.