Aboriginal people and health statistics by CT

Question

A researcher needs data at the CT level (Regina) for aboriginal health variables. At one point, I was hoping to utilize postal codes but have given up on this and have since wondered whether we should be using GeoSuite.

I think the problem, or one of them, is that the CCHS has the types of information she is looking for, i.e. depression, low self-esteem, on social assistance, etc. but this cannot be analyzed at a CT or even a CMA. Another problem is that the variable for race is either white or other. (I know there will be a listing of what health regions bought optional content but haven't found it yet. Any hints on this would be helpful though even if Regina-Qu'appelle bought into it the geography is too large.)

Answer

1 - GeoSuite only provides population and dwelling counts (as well as other nifty tools to identify the relationships within geographies - e.g., listing all the Das in a province, etc.). The product will not give you any demographic information.

2- CCHS will not release anything below the Health Region level - nothing at CT available at all.

3- Aboriginal People's profile is a special cross-tab from the Census. The Census does not ask questions about health (see Census long-form for questionnaire). It collects basic demographic information about language, education, income, etc.

4- The 2001 Aboriginal Peoples Survey did collect information about health (but very little) but the off-reserve sample is quite small, which means that CT level data is unavailable.

5- Any other survey that would have collected data on health would not be as specific as to ask for aboriginal identity (more than likely) and the fact that it would be a survey would make the size of the sample so small that it could not report at the CT level.

Therefore, there is really nothing that I can suggest to find this data. It is very detailed and more than likely unavailable through Statistics Canada.