Heat Related Deaths

Question
(1)I am helping a graduate student who is looking for a very precise dataset which will probably require a custom tab.

She is looking for the daily number of heat-related deaths (I know there is a category for that in the Vital Statistics database) for the following dates:

· 10th-13th of July 2005,
· 15th of July to 2nd of August 2006
· 17th to 25th of July 2011

For the following areas:
· Montreal CMA
· Toronto CMA
· Province of Quebec
· Ontario
· All of Canada

The data should be broken down by:
· Sex
· Age

(1 - Revised) After talking to the researcher, she has reformulated her request hoping that data could be provided at a less granular level.

So, now, she would be is looking for the daily number of heat-related deaths (I know there is a category for that in the Vital Statistics database) for the following dates:

· July 2005
· July 2011

For the following areas:
​Montreal CMA
Province of Quebec

Answer
(1)Unfortunately the custom tab as requested is not feasible, please see response below from the Health Statistics production team:

This request is not feasible as specified. While there is no minimum for suppression in Deaths custom tabulations, the data has to be randomly rounded by 5 to abide to our confidentiality rules. In this particular case, the number of deaths linked to the ICD-10 codes provided is lower than 10, which would translate into meaningless strings of 0, 5 and 10 if we should go on with the request as specified.

(1 - Revised) From subject matter: The sample is still too small to provide any usable data. The number of deaths due to exposure to natural heat (X30) for the entire province is usually less than 10 a year. Which makes monthly data essentially random. The number of deaths due to artificial heat (Flames, fire and smoke-X00-X09) is closer to 50 annually. But monthly data is still essentially random numbers. It is even more so for the CMA of Montreal. We would not recommend to process this request considering the low numbers and the necessary random rounding.

CANSIM Table 102-0240

Question

"Deaths due to medically treatable diseases, by selected causes of death, selected age groups and sex, Canada, provinces, territories, health regions and peer groups, occasional (age-standardized rate per 100,000 population)
(6012 series)"

This table is exactly what a researcher needs. However, it is "occasional data", i.e. it was only done once in 1997. He needs the data for a forty year span. Any suggestions?

Please and thank you.

Answer

The division responsible for CANSIM table 102-0240 has indicated that the information the researcher needs may be available depending on what he needs exactly from that table.

They have recommended the following cause of death products which are freely available:

"Cause of Death by age group, sex, Canada
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/84-208-x/2010002/tbl-eng.htm

Leading causes of death by ten leading causes of death in Canada for selected age groups by sex; ten leading causes of infant death; and ten leading causes of death for provinces and territories by sex.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?catno=84-215-X&lang=eng

Mortality, Summary list of causes by showing the number of deaths by age, sex and grouped underlying cause for Canada, the provinces and territories. Also included are age-specific and age-standardized mortality rates by grouped underlying cause of death.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/84f0209x/84f0209x2007000-eng.htm"

If these free products aren't suitable, they could look into what data is possible as a custom tabulation. To look into this, they would need a bit more information about the specific information the researcher needs (geography, years, variables: age, sex, etc. ) to determine if it is possible to release the information. The minimum cost for a custom tabulation would be $350 (please note that this is a minimum and not an official cost estimate).

I hope that this is helpful. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you need additional information.