2 PUMF Questions - CCHS and APS

Question

1) When will the 2009 - 2010 CCHS pumf be released? Also, in the CCHS 2009- 2010 questionnaire, there is an Aboriginal/ non-Aboriginal flag. Will this question make it into the pumf? I hope it does.

2) In the APS 2006 questionnaire, it states that people who answered the survey who were non-Aboriginal were not allowed to answer the questions on the rest of the APS survey. In the questionnaire, there are some questions that determine whether or not you are considered Aboriginal. If you answered yes to one of these questions, you were included in the Survey. One of these questions was "do you have an Aboriginal ancestor?". If a person answered yes to this question, and answered no to the other questions, are they in fact non-Aboriginal, and were they included in the APS survey? I'm asking this because, when I completed a weighted cross-tab (using the APS 2006) between gestational diabetes, and are you non-Aboriginal, I did get a result. The result only had about 25 cases, which is very low. However, the percentage of non-Aboriginals with gestational diabetes matched the exact percentage of a CIHI study done in the late 1990's about the percentage of non-Aboriginals with gestational diabetes. Could my matching result have occurred by chance alone?

I think this part of the APS 2006 survey methodology may be confusing because someone could have an Aboriginal ancestor, and could still be considered to be non-Aboriginal.

Help please!

Answer

The Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) 2009/2010 public use microdata file (PUMF) is currently scheduled to be released in September 2011.

I will look into your other questions below regarding the CCHS 2009/2010 PUMF and the Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS) 2006 PUMF and will send you more information as quickly as possible.

Additional Information

The Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) Aboriginal/Non-Aboriginal variable will not be included in the CCHS 2009/2010 public use microdata file (PUMF). Our health contacts explained that this variable is excluded from CCHS PUMFs because it has been identified as representing a high risk of disclosure in combination with other variables. Maintaining respondent confidentiality is essential.

Regarding your question about the Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS) 2006, pages 12 and 13 of the Aboriginal Peoples Survey, 2006: Concepts and Methods Guide (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/meta/aps-eapa/2006/2006concepts-eng.pdf) discuss the screening questions used to identify the Aboriginal population. The explanation at the bottom of page 13 will be of specific interest. Our APS contacts also provided the following explanation: "APS defines an Aboriginal person as having either Aboriginal ancestry or identity. The APS sample was determined by responses to the Aboriginal screening questions on the Census indicating either Aboriginal ancestry or identity. The selected sample was asked similar screening questions again on the APS questionnaire and if the respondent answered NO or refused to answer all of these, the interview was ended. It’s possible the client may be determining non-Aboriginal status by non-Aboriginal identity only, in which case there would have to be Aboriginal ancestry. There are no cases of non-Aboriginal identity AND non-Aboriginal ancestry on the APS."

I hope that this is helpful. If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.