Health Reports, September 2021

Released: 2021-09-15

The September 2021 issue of Health Reports contains two articles.

Lower hospitalization rates for immigrants than for the Canadian-born population

Results from the study "All-cause acute care hospitalization rates of immigrants and the Canadian-born population: A linkage study" show that age-standardized hospitalization rates (ASHRs) among immigrants were lower than those of the Canadian-born population in a five-year follow-up of hospitalization events from 2011 to 2016. Among immigrants, ASHRs were lowest in the economic class, followed by the family class and refugees. By country of origin, the ASHRs were lowest among immigrants from East Asia.

By landing year, male immigrants arriving earlier had the higher ASHRs compared with the most recent arrivals. There was a similar but weaker difference in ASHRs among female immigrants, excluding pregnancy. While differences in the leading causes of hospitalization exist between the sexes, circulatory disorders and digestive disorders ranked highly and were similar among immigrants and the Canadian-born population.

Co-authored by researchers from Statistics Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, this study is the first to use immigrant landing data linked with the Discharge Abstract Database and the Ontario Mental Health Reporting System. ASHRs of the Canadian-born were obtained from a linkage based on the 2011 National Household Survey.

The information in this study provides a baseline of comparison of health status between populations, which will enable further monitoring and inform health care system policy and planning to improve continuity of care and settlement among immigrants in Canada.

Steady progress in five-year net cancer survival

The study "The cancer survival index: Measuring progress in cancer survival to help evaluate cancer control efforts in Canada" provides a comprehensive evaluation of progress in cancer survival for all cancer types combined. The study created a cancer survival index based on cancer cases in the Canadian Cancer Registry and on death information from the Canadian Vital Statistics Death database.

Steady progress has been made in five-year net cancer survival index in Canada since the early 1990s. From the 1992-to-1994 period to the 2015-to-2017 period, the five-year net cancer survival index increased 8.6 percentage points to 63.7%. It increased by 8.9 percentage points to 61.8% among males, and by 8.2 percentage points to 65.8% among females. Female breast cancer contributed the most to the overall increase, followed by prostate and female lung cancer.

Progress in cancer survival rates over time depends on accurate cancer survival measures and provides a general indicator of progress in cancer control efforts.

Products

The articles "All-cause acute care hospitalization rates of immigrants and the Canadian-born population: A linkage study" and "The cancer survival index: Measuring progress in cancer survival to help evaluate cancer control efforts in Canada" are now available in the September 2021 online issue of Health Reports, Vol. 32, no. 9 (Catalogue number82-003-X).

Contact information

To enquire about "All-cause acute care hospitalization rates of immigrants and the Canadian-born population: A linkage study," contact Edward Ng (edward.ng@canada.ca), Health Analysis Division.

To enquire about "The cancer survival index: Measuring progress in cancer survival to help evaluate cancer control efforts in Canada," contact Larry Ellison (larry.ellison@canada.ca), Centre for Population Health Data.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).