Objectives: The Sami are the indigenous of Northern Scandinavia. Traditional indigenous life styles are increasingly being acknowledged for their health promotive aspects such as being community based and salutogenetic in perspective. A gender difference in health among reindeer herding Sami has been observed such as lower relative risk for cancer and cardiovascular diseases among reindeer herding men compared to the women. This has partly been interpreted in terms of access to a traditional health protective life style. The objective of this study is to analyze these gender differences in health among different groups of reindeer herding Sami in the light of health promotive aspects of indigenous life styles described in the recent scientific health litterature.

Study Design: Prospective cohort study and a litterature review

Methods: The study cohort constitutes of a total of 7 482 reindeer herders from which subgroups with different levels of influence of a traditional Sami life style were genealogically and geographically defined. Follow-up was from 1961 to 2003 and standard incidence ratios (SIR) for major life style related diseases such as CVD and cancer were calculated using a demographically matched control population as the standard of comparison.

Results: Overall lower risk for cancer and CVD was observed for reindeer herding men living in the mountain region compared to the control population while the relative risk for CVD was significantly higher among reindeer herding women living in lowland regions.

Conclusions: Different access to the health promotive factors in an active, more traditional Sami life style is suggested to partly explain the gender difference in health status observed in different subgroups of the reindeer herding commun