Health Reports

A Canadian peer-reviewed journal of population health and health services research

July 2023

Immigrant status and loneliness among older Canadians

by Md Kamrul Islam and Heather Gilmour

Prevalence of loneliness among Canadians has become an important concern among policy makers and program planners because of its wider consequences on health and well-being. Lonely individuals are at greater risk of experiencing poor mental and physical health, including higher levels of stress, depression and anxiety, and higher risk of morbidity, disability and frailty. For example, using longitudinal data, Davies and colleagues, revealed that older adults living with medium or high loneliness had higher relative risk (1.6 times and 2.6 times, respectively) of developing frailty than those with a low level of loneliness. Other research has shown that the risk of death is also higher among individuals experiencing infrequent social participation and loneliness.

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Immigrant status and loneliness among older Canadians

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The prevalence of household air conditioning in Canada

by Matthew Quick and Michael Tjepkema

Extreme heat exposure has been shown to be associated with a variety of health outcomes. In Canada, between 0.2% and 0.7% of all deaths from 1986 to 2009 have been attributed to heat. More recently, approximately 280 deaths occurred during the 2010 Quebec heat wave, and 619 deaths occurred in British Columbia during the 2021 heat dome in Western North America. In addition to mortality, short- and long-term heat exposure can lead to a variety of heat-related illnesses and outcomes, including heatstroke, exhaustion, dehydration and hospitalization resulting from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. With climate change projected to cause higher ambient temperatures and longer, more frequent and more intense extreme heat events,7 the health impacts of heat exposure are expected to increase.

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