Thursday, June 26, 2014

Canadian Community Health Survey 2013 and Problem Gambling

Question

A researcher here is looking at problem gambling in Manitoba. There are a couple of CCHS surveys that have included questions on this, but Manitoba did not seem to buy into this optional content in the past. However, it seems that Manitoba is one of the provinces that did buy into this Optional Content for CCHS 2013, as per the questionnaire: <http://www23.statcan.gc.ca.proxy2.lib.umanitoba.ca/imdb-bmdi/instrument/3226_Q1_V10-eng.pdf> (logon id and password) page 223 of 373.

I know it’s probably a little early in the data life cycle, but could you please confirm that this was collected, whether there will be a PUMF that might include this, or whether it will be in the RDCs along with any projected dates?

As you can imagine, researchers are quite eager to get access to this data.

Answer

Problem Gambling was optional content for CCHS 3.1, and only NB chose it. For CCHS 2010, only NB and AB, Nunavut chose it as optional content, so that is why there are no data.
The Health Statistics Division confirmed that:

Yes, Problem Gambling was selected by Manitoba for 2013. The data is available in the RDC’s, but will not be included in the PUMF when it is created next year.



Land Areas for 2011 Census Divisions

Question

We are looking for land areas for all the CDs in Canada - I opened the Population and Dwelling Counts file for the Census Divisions (excel file) and only have 24 CDs listed. Is there a more complete file?

Answer

Geosuite 2011 should do the trick.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Potential Years of Life Lost data from 2000 to 2013

Question

A researcher is looking for Potential Years of Life Lost data from 2000 to 2013. She is looking for a breakdown of causes of death as presented in CANSIM tables 102-0010, 102-0211, 102-0011 but the most recent data is from 1997.

The recent PYLL figures in table 102-0110 only include suicide and unintentional injuries as causes of death. Does anyone know if it is possible to get recent PYLL data with regard to breakdown of causes of death as presented in the previous tables?

Answer

We do have a couple of tables with more recent PYLL information by those causes:

- Table 102-4309 has data for 2000/2002 and 2005/2007 down to the health region level.

- Table 102-4310 has data for 2005/2007 at the Census Metropolitan Area level.

- As mentioned 102-0110 only presents injury and suicide among the causes of death.  

There are also tables presenting PYLL by potentially avoidable, treatable or preventable causes, but they don’t break down further than that. 102-4311 is at the health region level for 2006/2008 and up, while 102-4312 is at the provincial level from 1979.

Anything beyond those would require a custom tabulation. 

If the client is looking more at the cause rather than the geography,s/he could use the various mortality by cause tables (e.g. 102-0551 or the causes by chapter tables 102-0521 through 102-0542) with some population estimates (e.g. 051-0001) and calculate the results himself/herself.  These would be at the Canada level only, however.

Monday, June 23, 2014

Survey of Intellectual Property Commercialization in the Higher Education Sector

Question

A researcher is enquiring into availability of data from this discontinued survey: <http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&lang=en&db=imdb& adm=8&dis=2&SDDS=4222>


Answer

At this time, we cannot provide any additional detail from what is available on CANSIM table
358-0025 <http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26?lang=eng&retrLang=eng&id=3580025& pattern=survey+of+intellectual+property+commercialization&tabMode=dataTable&srchLan=-1&p1=1&p2=49>

However, it is of interest to know what she/he is looking for (in case we can ever reinstate this survey).

Canada Healthcare Spend Data

Question

I am looking for data about healthcare in Canada where I can see the Charges (direct cost, administrative Cost and Other) by Procedure at least for the Procedures with Higher Spend like (Total Joints, Pacemakers, Defibrillators, Spine, etc). Additionally, I am looking for details for the Direct Cost, in a way that I can disaggregate  Surgeon Costs, Implant Cost, Anesthesiologist, etc.Where would I be able to find this kind of data?


Answer

The Health Statistics Division (HSD) confirmed that they had no data on medical costs. HSD included a link to CIHI that might be helpful, though they don’t know if it includes cost by procedure: <http://www.cihi.ca/CIHI-ext-portal/internet/EN/SubTheme/spending+and+health +workforce/spending/cihi015954>.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Genealogy Question

Question

Genealogy questions are a bit beyond the scope of the service I provide, but I have a question from someone asking for clues about how to find census data about one of their relatives, born in 1880 in NFL, died in Toronto in 1976. To the best of my knowledge, the names of individuals are blocked out from Statistics Canada census data for privacy purposes, and I’m probably going to refer this person to the public library for assistance. But do you, in the DLI community, field many genealogy questions? How do you typically handle these?

Answer

The names are available (and searchable) for the early censuses. See: <http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/Pages/census.aspx>. Note: the summary of the legislation at the bottom of: <http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/Pages/census.aspx#census_lac>.

I get the occasional question from members of the public, and I do tend to refer them to the public library. This would also be a great place to refer them however: <http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/genealogy/Pages/introduction.aspx>.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

2012 SFS PUMF

Question

Has the 2012 SFS public use file has been released? If not, when can we expect it?

Answer

The release plan for the SFS 2012 RDC file is in June 2014, and the release for the SFS 2012 PUMF is the Fall 2014.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

CIHI Conversion Tables

Question

I am looking to access a CIHI document "Conversion Tables: ICD-10-CA/CCI to ICD-9/CCP." I want to convert medical procedure codes from the newer CCI system to the older CCP system. CIHI provides this data, however it costs money <https://secure.cihi.ca/estore /productSeries.htm?pc=PCC85>. Is it possible to access it for free through the library system? Is this something that we can get from CIHI as part of the DAD project?

Answer

As part of the pilot project, we only have access to DADs sample files. CIHI data inquiries can be requested by filling out a data inquiry form: <https://forums.cihi.ca/Forms/ DataInquiry/data_inquiry_e.asp>.

Academic researchers (except for students through the Graduate Student Data Access Program <http://www.cihi.ca/CIHI-ext-portal/internet/en/document/standards+and+data+ submission/data+requests/reqdata_gsdap>) are considered Price A clients and are charged $145/hour. When the client completes the inquiry form it will be forwarded to the appropriate team who will then contact the client to discuss the details of the request. There is no charge for submitting an inquiry.

We would like to extend the partnership with CIHI to include more data, however, that will depend on the evaluation of the pilot project. Feedback from the DLI community is very important in moving this endeavor forward.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Crops Small Area Data

Question

I’ve got a doctoral student who’s interested in using the Crops Small Area Data (22C0005). Is this available to us through the DLI?

Answer

There is now Small area data available for free on Cansim. (Table 001-0071). Here is a link to the Small area data table for crops: <http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26?lang=eng &retrLang=eng&id=0010071&paSer=&pattern=&stByVal=1&p1=1&p2=-1&tabMode=dataTable&csid=>

2011 Census - Area of FSAs

Question

I’m looking for the land area (square kilometers or square miles) for each Forward Sortation Area – this information seems to be unusually difficult to obtain. We know that we can load the boundary file into ArcGIS and obtain it that way – but is it available in any standard geographic (tabular) format?

Answer

The geography division explained that "land area data are unofficial and are provided for the sole purpose of calculating population density. We do not calculate or publish population density for Forward Sortation Areas so we do not have any land area values for Forward Sortation Areas pre-calculated in the standard geographic tabular format that your client is looking for.

More information on land area can be found in the Census Dictionary: <http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/ref/dict/geo029-eng.cfm>."

Monday, June 9, 2014

Hospital Morbidity Database

Question

The Hospital Morbidity Database is listed as available for researchers on the CIHI site. However, there is a cost for it. Is it possible for the faculty member to obtain this through the DLI? <http://www.cihi.ca/cihi-ext-portal/internet/en/document/types+of+care/hospital +care/acute+care/hmdb_metadata>

Answer

The procedure for acquiring data, as it is not available through the DLI. Data from the HMDB can be requested by filling out a data inquiry form: <https://forums.cihi.ca/Forms/DataInquiry /data_ inquiry_e.asp>.

Academic researchers (except for students through the Graduate Student Data Access Program <http://www.cihi.ca/CIHI-ext-portal/internet/en/document/standards+and+data +submission/data+requests/reqdata_gsdap> are considered Price A clients and are charged $145/hour. When the client completes the inquiry form it will be forwarded to the appropriate team who will then contact the client to discuss the details of the request. There is no charge for submitting an inquiry.