Abstract

The family environment is an important influence on the health and behaviours of children. Few large-scale datasets include detailed and objectively measured health data about multiple individuals from the same family who are living in the same household. The Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) is a repeating, cross-sectional survey that selects two members of a household—a child and a randomly selected older member of the household aged 12 to 79 years—with at least one child aged 3 to 11 years in residence. These paired respondent records, available in the CHMS relationship files, provide unique opportunities to researchers interested in examining associations between two members of the same household for health behaviours and outcomes. A range of pairings are captured in the relationship files (e.g., parent and child, siblings, grandchild and grandparent) with birth parent–child pairs being the most common. These paired respondent data are an important analytical asset of the CHMS and enhance the research potential of the survey significantly.

Keywords

paired respondents, dyad, Canada, parent–child, relationship, survey, health

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.25318/82-003-x202100700001-eng

Findings

Childhood is an important developmental period for establishing healthy lifestyle behaviours. The majority of Canadian children are not meeting the recommended physical activity levels for good health; a low percentage of them meet the screen time recommendations and most consume too much sugar and ultra-processed foods. As a result, children are experiencing unprecedented rates of overweight and obesity, as well as many of the diseases associated with excess weight, including type II diabetes and hypertension. [Full article]

Authors

Kellie Langlois (kellie.langlois@canada.ca), Rachel C. Colley, Didier Garriguet and Tracey Bushnik are with the Health Analysis Division, Statistics Canada. Anne Mather is with the Social Statistics Methods Division, Statistics Canada.