American Indian and Alaska Native Digestive Health:Challenges,Opportunities, anda Path Forward

The United States has an increasingly diverse andrapidly changing population-with projections that by 2050 more than 50% of individuals living within changing population mandates that we improve our understanding of the evolving health care needs of our patients. Although progress has been made in identifying and addressing health care disparities, American Indians understudied in much of this work. This widely diverse group represents 1.8% of the US population and has a distinctly complicated political relationship with the US federal and state governments. For example, in exchange for territory, the US government agreed to provide health care to AI/AN people through various mechanisms. Despite such guarantees, AI/AN communities continue to be at higher risk for many chronic diseases2 and have significant barriers to accessing and receiving health care. Here, we highlight AI/AN individuals' unique health care challenges, especially regarding digestive health care, and offer interventions to address these barriers.