Health

Description:

General population health surveys often include small samples of smokers. Few longitudinal studies specific to smoking have been carried out. We discuss development of the Ontario Tobacco Survey (OTS) which combines a rolling longitudinal, and repeated cross-sectional components. The OTS began in July 2005 using random selection and data-collection by telephones. Every 6 months, new samples of smokers and non-smokers provide data on smoking behaviours and attitudes. Smokers enter a panel study and are followed for changes in smoking influences and behaviour. The design is proving to be cost effective in meeting sample requirements for multiple research objectives.

Description:

When Chiang's "standard" method is used, calculating life expectancy for (small) census agglomerations in Canada can produce estimates whose confidence intervals are too wide to be useful. However, we have been able to show that by combining small area estimation methods and simulation methods, we can obtain narrower confidence intervals.

Description:

Immigrants have health advantages over native-born Canadians, but those advantages are threatened by specific risk situations. This study explores cardiovascular health outcomes in districts of Montréal classified by the proportion of immigrants in the population, using a principal component analysis. The first three components are immigration, degree of socio-economic disadvantage and degree of economic disadvantage. The incidence of myocardial infarction is lower in districts with large immigrant populations than in districts dominated by native-born Canadians. Mortality rates are associated with the degree of socio-economic disadvantage, while revascularization is associated with the proportion of seniors in the population.

Description:

The classification and identification of locations where persons report to be more or less healthy or have more or less social capital, within a specific area such as a health region, is tremendously helpful for understanding place and health associations. The objective of the proposed study is to classify and map areas within the Zone 6 Health Region (Figure 1) of Nova Scotia (Halifax Regional Municipality and Annapolis Valley regions) according to health status (Dimension 1) and social capital (Dimension 2). We abstracted responses to questions about self-reported health status, mental health, and social capital from the master files of the Canadian Community Health Survey (Cycles 1.1, 1.2 and 2.1), National Population Health Survey (Cycle 5), and the General Social Survey (Cycles 13, 14, 17, and 18). Responses were geocoded using the Statistics Canada Postal Code Conversion File (PCCF+) and imported into a geographical information system (GIS) so that the postal code associated with the response will be assigned to a latitude and longitude within the Nova Scotia Zone 6 health region. Kernel density estimators and additional spatial interpolators were used to develop statistically-smoothed surfaces of the distribution of respondent values for each question. The smoothing process eliminates the possibility of revealing individual respondent location and confidential Statistics Canada sampling frame information. Using responses from similar questions across multiple surveys improves the likelihood of detecting heterogeneity among the responses within the health region area, as well as the accuracy of the smoothed map classification.

Description:

Approaches used to select records for tabulation of national injury hospitalization data were identified. Three of the approaches were based on the principal diagnosis in the hospital separation record; the other three required that the record contain a code for an external cause of injury. Differences within these two main groups resulted in identification of six distinct approaches. Each approach was applied to the same set of hospital separation data. The numbers and types of injury records retrieved with the six approaches are compared and implications of the findings for injury surveillance are discussed.

Description:

Traditionally administrative hospital discharge databases have been mainly used for administrative purposes. Recently, health services researchers and population health researchers have been using the databases for a wide variety of studies; in particular health care outcomes. Tools, such as comorbidity indexes, have been developed to facilitate this analysis. Every time the coding system for diagnoses and procedures is revised or a new one is developed, these comorbidity indexes need to be updated. These updates are important in maintaining consistency when trends are examined over time.

Description:

Using survey and contact attempt history data collected with the 2005 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a multi-purpose health survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we set out to explore the impact of participant concerns/reluctance on data quality, as measured by rates of partially complete interviews and item nonresponse. Overall, results show that respondents from households where some type of concern or reluctance (e.g., "too busy," "not interested") was expressed produced higher rates of partially complete interviews and item nonresponse than respondents from households where concern/reluctance was not expressed. Differences by type of concern were also identified.

Description:

Accurate information about the timing of access to primary mental health care is critically important in order to identify potentially modifiable factors which could facilitate timely and on-going management of care. No "gold standard" measure of mental health care utilization exists, so it useful to know how strengths, gaps, and limitations in different data sources influence study results. This study compares two population-wide measures of primary mental health care utilization data: the Canadian Community Health Survey of Mental Health and Well-being (CCHS, cycle 1.2) and provincial health insurance records in the province of British Columbia. It explores four questions: (1) Is 12-month prevalence of contacts with general practitioners for mental heath issues the same regardless of whether survey data or administrative data are used? (2) What is the level of agreement between the survey data and administrative data for having had any contact with a general practitioner for mental heath issues during the 12 month period before the survey interview? (3) Is the level of agreement constant throughout the 12-month period or does it decline over more distant sub-timeframes within the 12-month period? (4) What kinds of respondent characteristics, including mental disorders, are associated with agreement or lack of agreement? The results of this study will provide useful information about how to use and interpret each measure of health care utilization. In addition, it will contribute to survey design research, and to research which aims to improve the methods for using administrative data for mental health services research.

Description:

National Food and Nutrition Surveys provide critical information to support the understanding the complex relationship between health and diet in the population. Many of these surveys use 24 hour recall methodology which collects at a detailed level all food and beverages consumed over a day. Often it is the longer term intake of foods and nutrients that is of interest and a number of techniques are available that allow estimation of population usual intakes. These techniques require that at least one repeat 24 hour recall be collected from at least a subset of the population in order to estimate the intra individual variability of intakes. Deciding on the number of individuals required to provide a repeat is an important step in the survey design that must recognize that too few repeat individuals compromises the ability to estimate usual intakes, but large numbers of repeats are costly and pose added burden to the respondents. This paper looks at the statistical issues related to the number of repeat individuals, assessing the impact of the number of repeaters on the stability and uncertainty in the estimate of intra individual variability and provides guidance on required number of repeat responders .

Description:

Growth curves are used by health professionals to determine whether the growth of a child or a foetus, for example, is within normal limits. The growth charts currently used in Canada for height, weight and body mass index (BMI) are based on US data. Child growth curves can now be generated from the latest available data in Canada. One way of estimating and drawing growth curves is the Lambda-Mu-Sigma (LMS) method. The method has been used in various studies by the World Health Organization, the United Kingdom and the United States to generate reference growth curves for children. In this article, the LMS method is used to estimate growth curves in BMI percentiles from weighted cross-sectional data provided by cycle 2.2 of the Canadian Community Health Survey. This article is about the child BMI, one of the anthropometric measures most commonly used to assess growth and obesity.

Description: Monthly indexes and percentage changes for selected sub-groups of the health and personal care component of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), not seasonally adjusted, for Canada, provinces, Whitehorse and Yellowknife. Data are presented for the corresponding month of the previous year, the previous month and the current month. The base year for the index is 2002=100.

Description: This dashboard presents data that are relevant for monitoring mortality in Canada. The interactive visualization within the dashboard features insights on weekly death trends from the Canadian Vital Statistics - Death (CVSD) database.

Description: This table provides Canadians and researchers with provisional data to monitor weekly death trends by age and sex in Canada. Given the delays in receiving the data from the provincial and territorial vital statistics offices, these data are considered provisional. Data in this table will be available by province and territory.

Description:

This table provides Canadians and researchers with provisional data to monitor weekly death trends in Canada. Given the delays in receiving the data from the provincial and territorial vital statistics offices, these data are considered provisional. Data in this table will be available by province and territory.

Description:

This table provides Canadians and researchers with provisional data to monitor weekly death trends by selected grouped causes of death in Canada. Given the delays in receiving the data from the provincial and territorial vital statistics offices, these data are considered provisional. Data in this table will be available by province and territory.

Description: The table displays weekly age standardized mortality rates for every province in Canada (excluding territories), by sex, since 2019. The standardization is done using the 2011 Canadian population.

Description: Number and percentage of children and youth with changes or no change in their functional difficulties between 2019 and 2023 by gender and age group, Canada (excluding territories) and provinces.

Description: Number and percentage of youth who report changes or no change in their health characteristics between 2019 and 2023 by gender and age group, Canada (excluding territories) and provinces.

Description: This dashboard presents provisional monthly estimates of the levels of amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine (benzoylecgonine), codeine, fentanyl (norfentanyl), ecstasy, methadone, methamphetamine, morphine, and oxycodone in the wastewater of Halifax, Montréal, Toronto, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, Edmonton, and Metro Vancouver. The data that are relevant for monitoring the use of these substances in Canadian cities.

Description: Drug metabolites in wastewater, presented as load per capita, in select Canadian cities, by type of drug. The 95% confidence interval, standard error, and imputation rate of the load per capita of the drug metabolites in wastewater are included.

Description: Active commuting (AC) to and from work is associated with numerous health benefits, through increased physical activity. This study examined whether occupation types and part-time work, by sex, were associated with AC in a population-based sample of Canadian workers. This study examined the associations between occupational classifications, part-time work, and AC (i.e., walking, cycling) and public transit use, in a nationally representative sample of Canadian adults, while controlling for other relevant sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., education, income, urbanity). This study also explored how associations between occupational classifications and AC differed by sex and how AC rates may have changed over time.

Description: Physical and sexual childhood abuse are associated with suicidal ideation and mental health disorders. However, less is known about non-physical types of maltreatment. This study examined associations between non-physical types of child maltreatment (e.g., emotional abuse, interpersonal aggression, exposure to physical intimate partner violence, emotional and physical neglect) and suicidal ideation, and mental health disorders.

Description:

Health Reports, published by the Health Analysis Division of Statistics Canada, is a peer-reviewed journal of population health and health services research. It is designed for a broad audience that includes health professionals, researchers, policymakers, and the general public. The journal publishes articles of wide interest that contain original and timely analyses of national or provincial/territorial surveys or administrative databases. New articles are published electronically each month.

Health Reports had an impact factor of 5.0 for 2022 and a five-year impact factor of 5.6. All articles are indexed in PubMed. Our online catalogue is free and receives more than 700,000 visits per year. External submissions are welcome.

Description: This study uses data from multiple waves of the Canadian Social Survey (CSS) to examine trends in three key Quality of Life indicators, namely life satisfaction, experiences of financial hardship, and future outlook. Monitoring these well-being indicators following periods of considerable social and economic change is particularly important. Beginning in the summer of 2021, the CSS, a new quarterly survey, captured the latter part of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the rising cost of living in Canada, allowing for an understanding of how Canadians are coping with these challenges.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: This infographic examines declines in Canadians’ well-being over the past few years, and how these downward changes vary across different segments of the population. Life satisfaction, financial difficulty, and future outlook, which are key quality of life indicators, are presented.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: Work arrangements changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, as organizations switched to working from home on a large scale and used digital technologies to adapt to physical distancing mandates. It is largely unknown how changes to work arrangements since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Canada. This article focuses on whether needs and unmet needs for WPAs among employed Canadians with disabilities have changed since 2017, with the widespread deployment of working from home and digital technologies.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: This survey collects the financial and operating data needed to develop national and regional economic policies and programs.

Description: The main objective of the Survey on Maternal Health is to collect information from biological mothers about their pregnancy and postpartum experiences.

Description: The data contain detailed confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Canada, which is compiled by the Public Health Agency of Canada, with the contribution from provincial and territorial Health ministries.

Description: The purpose of this crowdsource questionnaire is to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on Canadian health care workers, with particular focus on access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection prevention and control (IPC) measures in the workplace.

Description: The Simcoe Muskoka Opioid Overdose Cohort (SMOOC) is an expansion of a pilot project that had previously been conducted with the province of British Columbia to better understand the characteristics of people who experienced an opioid overdose. The objective of the SMOOC was to create a cohort of individuals who experienced a fatal or non-fatal overdose in the Simcoe Muskoka area between January 2018 and December 2019.

Description: The purpose of this survey is to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care workers in Canada.

Description: This survey covers topics such as the use of and access to primary health care and specialist care, care coordination, barriers to care, prescription medications, and out-of-pocket expenses. The results may be used by Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and provincial ministries of health to help inform the delivery of health care services and develop and improve programs and policies to better serve all Canadians.