Health Reports
A Canadian peer-reviewed journal of population health and health services research
February 2026
Comparison of physical activity and sedentary time measured with the ActiGraph GT3X-BT and Actical accelerometers
From 2007 to 2019, Statistics Canada’s Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) used the Actical (AC) accelerometer (Philips Respironics, Oregon, United States) to measure physical activity (PA) and sedentary time (SED) among people living in Canada. Accelerometer results have been widely used for conducting population health surveillance of PA in Canada, informing the development of new PA recommendations in Canada and elsewhere, and helping to better understand and interpret self-reported measures of PA.
Full article PDF versionRisk factors for substance-related acute toxicity deaths in Canada from 2016 to 2021: Findings from the 2016 Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort
Critically high numbers of poisoning-related deaths, also known as acute toxicity deaths (ATDs), occur every year in Canada, with the number of such deaths having increased over time (Figure 1). Acute toxicity deaths increased sharply in 2017, with an average of 8,260 ATDs per year occurring between 2020 and 2023. In 2023, more than a quarter of ATDs were caused by the consumption of narcotics (such as opioids) and hallucinogens (27.3%), while more than half (58.9%) were caused by the consumption of other and unspecified drugs, medicaments, and biological substances. In that same year, ATDs accounted for 2.5% of all deaths in Canada (Figure 1). Meanwhile, life expectancy in Canada decreased for three consecutive years (2020 to 2022), with some of this decline attributed to COVID-19 and to accidental drug poisoning deaths.
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