Health Reports
A Canadian peer-reviewed journal of population health and health services research
February 2023
Mortality inequalities of Black adults in Canada
by Michael Tjepkema, Tanya Christidis, Toyib Olaniyan and Jeremiah Hwee
According to the 2016 Census, there were 1.2 million Black people in Canada, representing 3.5% of the total population. Black people in Canada have diverse ethnic and cultural origins and places of birth. For example, Black immigrants who landed in the 1980s and 1990s were often sponsored by family members already living in Canada, with most coming from Jamaica and Haiti. Immigration patterns have changed more recently, with Black immigrants mostly arriving from African countries, coming to Canada under the economic program. In 2016, immigrants from Africa accounted for 13.4% of new immigrants, second only to immigrants from Asia (including the Middle East), accounting for 61.8% of recent immigrants.
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Mortality inequalities of Black adults in Canada
- Hwee J, Bougie E. Do cancer incidence and mortality rates differ among ethnicities in Canada? Health Reports. 2021; 32(8): DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.25318/82-003-x202100800001-eng
- Ng E, Quinlan J, Giovinazzo, Grundy, A, Rank C, Syoufi M, Ponka D, and Garner R. All-cause acute care hospitalization rates of immigrants and the Canadian-born population: A linkage study. Health Reports. 2021; 32(9): DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.25318/82-003-x202101000001-eng
Online digital media use and adolescent mental health
by Stacie Kerr and Mila Kingsbury
Digital media are an increasingly central part of adolescents’ lives. As of 2018, nearly all U.S. teens aged 13 to 17 (95%) had access to a smartphone, and 45% reported being online “almost constantly.” In Canada, young people aged 15 to 24 report the highest rates of online media use of any age group—93% regularly use text or instant messaging services, 91% use social media and 68% report playing online games. Some researchers have suggested that online media use may contribute to poor mental health among adolescents; it has been associated with depression, body dissatisfaction, self-harm and suicidality in previous literature. Several reasons for an association between online digital media use and mental ill health have been hypothesized. For example, electronic device use may interfere with adolescents’ sleep, particularly because many teens report sleeping with their smartphones within reach. Alternatively, more time online may be associated with a higher likelihood of online harassment or cybervictimization. However, other researchers have argued that these media may serve a beneficial function, offering convenient ways to form and maintain social relationships despite boundaries, such as physical distance. In reality, the picture is likely to be nuanced—adolescents engage with a wide variety of online digital media, each of which may be related to mental health in a different way. The purpose of the present study was to examine differential associations between different types of online digital media use and mental health among Canadian adolescents. In order to lighten the text without discrimination, please note that throughout the article, the generic masculine will be used.
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Online digital media use and adolescent mental health
- Wong S, King N, Gariépy G, Michaelson V, Canie O, King M, Craig W and Pickett W. Adolescent social media use and its association with relationships and connections: Canadian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children, 2017/2018. Health Reports. 2022; 33(12): DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.25318/82-003-x202201200002-eng
- Schimmele C, Fonberg J, Schellenberg G. Canadians’ assessments of social media in their lives. Economic and Social Reports. 2021;1(4): DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/36280001202100300004-eng
Health Utilities Index Mark 3 scores for children and youth: Population norms for Canada based on cycles 5 (2016 and 2017) and 6 (2018 and 2019) of the Canadian Health Measures Survey
by Mariana Molina, Brittany Humphries, Jason R Guertin, David Feeny and Jean-Eric Tarride
Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is considered to be an important endpoint in the evaluation of health status and health care interventions—there is a need to understand changes not only in the quantity of life but also in the HRQoL (e.g., an intervention for pain management may have no impact on mortality). Utility scores are a measure of HRQoL designed to represent the physical, mental and social functioning degree associated with a specific health state and the satisfaction that patients attach to that health state. By convention, a utility score of 1.00 represents “perfect health,” and a score of 0.00 represents a “dead” state. Health states that are “worse than dead” are assigned a negative value.
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Health Utilities Index Mark 3 scores for non-adults: Population norms for Canada based on cycles 5 (2016 and 2017) and 6 (2018 and 2019) of the Canadian Health Measures Survey
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- Guertin JR, Humphries B, Feeny D, Tarride JÉ. Health Utilities Index Mark 3 scores for major chronic conditions: Population norms for Canada based on the 2013 and 2014 Canadian Community Health Survey. Health Reports. 2018; 29(11).
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- Bushnik T, Tjepkema M, Martel L. Health-adjusted life expectancy in Canada. Health Reports. 2018; 29(4).
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