Question about CCHS 3.1 Variables

Question

A student has asked the following question about the Canadian Community Health Survey:

I am having a hard time understanding the definition of one of the derived variables in the CCHS 3.1 - namely: INCEDRRS, found on page 251-252 of the derived variables booklet. The description of this variable is confusing and I am unsure of what INCEDADR (that INCEDRRS is based on) refers to exactly. I am wondering if INCEDRRS is essentially the same as TEMP_RATIO (p. 244-), but at the health region level and divided into 10 deciles? Any thoughts that you have on this definition would be greatly appreciated.

Answer

The TEMP_RATIO is the respondent's household income divided by its corresponding LICO (low income cut-off - based on household size and the size of community the respondent's household is located in).

INCEDADR is a variable that makes everyone's ratio ranging from 0 to 1. We simply divide the TEMP_RATIO of each household by the highest
household TEMP_RATIO among all CCHS respondents.

These adjusted ratios are then divided into 10 equal groups (deciles) and are calculated at the national level (INCEDRCA), within each province (INCEDRPR) and within each health region (INCEDRRS).