Canadian Health Survey on Seniors, 2019/2020

The Canadian Health Survey on Seniors (CHSS) for the 2019/2020 reference period contains information on the average population aged 65 and older over the two-year period. The CHSS is a supplement to the Canadian Community Health Survey - Annual component. It collects information related to health status, health care services, supports, as well as social and health determinants for the Canadian population aged 65 and over. Data were collected from approximately 42,000 respondents over the two years.

The CHSS has produced an annual microdata file for the years 2019 and 2020 and now this microdata file combining two years of data. The combined data are the same as the two individual annual data files, simply stacked together with weights adjusted. The annual data for 2020 were released in The Daily on October 1, 2021 and the 2019 data were released on August 6, 2020. The two-year data can be used to disaggregate estimates to represent smaller populations and rare characteristics. This data has been tabulated in the table 13-10-0849-01 with estimates of the prevalence of chronic conditions among seniors tabulated by province, age group, and sex and the table 13-10-0850-01 with select health characteristics related to older Canadians, also tabulated by province, age group, and sex.

Although data for 2019 and 2020 are from the CHSS, the 2020 cycle of the survey had some notable differences compared with 2019. In March 2020, the CHSS collection was paused and did not resume until September 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, when the collection periods were reduced from three-month periods to five-week periods. In-person interviews were halted and collection was only completed via telephone interview, which affected the number of cases collected.

For the data from both the 2019 and 2020 CHSS cycles, survey weights were adjusted to minimize any potential bias that could arise from survey non-response; non-response adjustments and calibration using available auxiliary information were applied and are reflected in the survey weights provided with the data file. Extensive validations of survey estimates were also performed and examined from a bias analysis perspective. Despite these rigorous adjustments and validations, the higher non-response rate increases the risk of remaining bias and the magnitude of the potential impact of such a bias on estimates produced using the survey data. While the results taken from the 2019/2020 data are valid, users should keep in mind the risk of bias when interpreting these results.

The data are now available in the Research Data Centres.