About the Center...

The Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) is developing unique biomedical knowledge and translating it into research for the prevention and reduction of health disparities among Alaska Natives.
CANHR was established in 2001 through a five-year grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Research Resources to the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In 2007 the NIH renewed the center’s grant for $11 million for another five years to build on CANHR’s research findings on obesity and its relationship to diabetes and cardiovascular disease among Alaska Natives.

CANHR partners with the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation and communities throughout Southwest Alaska. Our main offices are located on the UAF campus with field staff hired in each participating community.

CANHR’s overall goal is to achieve a permanent and sustainable research center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks with the primary theme of investigating obesity and chronic disease-related risk and protective factors. To build a collaborative research presence in Alaska Native communities, three themes guide CANHR researchers.

• Prevention and reduction of health disparities. CANHR seeks new knowledge through basic and applied research that can ultimately be applied to understand, prevent and reduce health disparities in indigenous communities.
• Cultural processes awareness. The center’s researchers study how cultural variables influence the understanding of disease expression in Alaska Natives so that research findings and intervention are valid and culturally appropriate.
• Community-based participatory research methods. CANHR researchers work closely with and take significant direction from indigenous communities. Tribal community members become co-researchers.

In summary, the Center for Alaska Native Health Research embraces a model for research that is collaborative. At every stage of the research, faculty and staff work with tribal groups and health care agencies to frame research questions, develop methodologies and procedures, and to interpret and apply data to prevention and treatment.