Welcome to I-HeLTI
Indigenous Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative
What is I-HeLTI?
I-HeLTI is an Indigenous component of the Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative (HeLTI) representing an important opportunity for Indigenous communities to identify culturally strengthening strategies critical for improving maternal and child health outcomes of Indigenous communities in Alberta and British Columbia with implications for other Indigenous communities as our results emerge. Grounded in the developmental origins of health and disease framework, we are examining how early life experiences influence well-being from pre-conception through pregnancy, infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood.
About The Collaborating Centre
The I-HeLTI Collaborating Centre is housed in the Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre (Alberta FNIGC) and serves as a hub for all teams to accomplish the overarching goals and objectives of the project and to offer guidance around data collection, data governance and data sovereignty. The Alberta FNIGC is mandated by the Assembly of Treaty Chiefs to promote, protect and advance First Nations Ownership, Control, Access, Possession (OCAP®) principles in Treaty no. 6, Treaty no. 7, and Treaty no. 8. Contact us if you have questions: reception@afnigc.ca
Our Cohorts
Our Goal
Restoring healthy family systems grounded in our wisdom, culture, experiences, and knowledge systems.
Project Objectives
- Gather and consolidate Indigenous Knowledge on optimal and culturally appropriate child development to inform the design and adaptation of measures and program evaluation approaches for our Indigenous Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) intervention cohort study.
- Establish a periconceptional intervention cohort to evaluate community-led programs, to support the health and development of Indigenous children, families, and communities.
- Evaluate the efficacy of these programs in reducing non-communicable disease (NCD) risks and improving developmental outcomes and wellness throughout the lifespan based on community priorities. Determine community-specific social and biological mechanisms by which exposures, programs, and strategies exert their effects including biological and economic analysis of interventions.
- Use knowledge acquired to refine programs and strategies and generate new approaches aimed at restoring traditional family systems by creating supportive environments and reducing negative exposures during early development, starting before conception.
- Share knowledge with other Indigenous groups based in British Columbia, Alberta, and beyond, through crucial partnerships with BC’s First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) and Alberta FNIGC, among others Indigenous communities will drive the approaches used during the intervention(s), data collection, research governance, and data management and usage.
About HeLTI Canada
HeLTI Canada is one of four separate, but harmonized studies focused on developing evidence-based care for families that span from preconception across pregnancy and into the postpartum period and early childhood. The aim is to improve the health and well-being of children by preventing the development of obesity and chronic diseases. Three other similar studies are being conducted in Soweto (South Africa), Mysore (India), and Shanghai (China) to provide a global perspective. The global HeLTI program was developed by the Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health of the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR). HeLTI is a partnership between CIHR, the South African Medical Research Council, the Department of Biotechnology, India, the National Science Foundation of China, and the World Health Organization.