Canadian Data on Disability and Mental Health Services

Question:
I am looking for information, data, and statistics on disparity to mental health services for the following Canadian populations: rural folks, people classified has having disabilities (blind, physical disability, cognitive disability, brain injury etc).

I'm also looking for any types of statistics on internet accessibility across Canada, more specifically related to rural areas.

Answer:

I’ve checked with the team from CIHI and they’re provided us with the following response:

In response to your interest relating to mental health data, based on your specific data of interest, our Hospital Mental Health Database (HMHDB) team does not unfortunately have any sources that are readily available to be able to provide to you.

Customised data is typically obtainable through the submission of a formal data request. However, with that being said, even if you were interested in exploring this option, the data we have available, would only address the use of inpatient mental health services, and not access disparities. In terms of disabilities, we likely will not be able to capture historical diagnoses, rather would be able to identify only those that are captured on that episode of care.

Lastly for your interest regarding “any types of statistics on internet accessibility across Canada, more specifically related to rural areas”- such data is not a part of our data collection.

CCHS PUMFs and Sexual Orientation

Question:
I have a researcher wanting to use the CCHS PUMFs to look at the sexual identity variable, but even though the question has been asked in the Socio-Demographic portion of the questionnaire since Cycle 2.1 and reports have been published citing the data (such as https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/040615/dq040615b-eng.htm) neither of us can find this variable in any file other than the 2015-16 cycle. I hope we are not just missing something, but perhaps there is a reason this information was not made part of the PUMF files?

Answer:
I’ve received the following response from subject matter:

“In the past, the subject matter team preparing the PUMFs for release considered the sexual orientation concept as an indirect identifier and chose not to include it with the file. In 2015-2016, our team requested to the Microdata Release Committee to allow us to add the variable to our 2015-2016 PUMF. They agreed that the risk of disclosure was low and approved the addition of the variable. We will continue to assess the risk, but I imagine we will continue with the release of that variable going forward.”

Canadian Community Health Survey PUMF 2017-2018

Question:
Given that the CCHS PUMF for 2015/2016 was only released earlier this year, the researcher realizes that the PUMF for 2017-2018 is probably not in the very near future, but would like to know if there is any estimated timeframe for its release.

Answer:
We do not have an official release date for the CCHS 2017-2018 PUMF. Last I had spoken to subject matter, they were in the collection stage and didn’t expect to have anything released for another 1-2 years.

We will be updating our list of expected releases on the website shortly!

Canadian Dollars Spent on Plastic Surgery

Question:
Does anyone know of a table that gives the amount of Cdn dollars spent on plastic surgery?

Answer:
From our end here at Stats, unfortunately we weren’t able to come up with anything beyond a regular google search. There are no surveys that collect this information.

Follow-up Answer:
You may wish to take a look at CIHI’s National Physician Database, 2016-2017: Data Release | Supply, Distribution and Migration of Physicians in Canada, 2017 : Data Tables and Physicians in Canada, 2017: Summary Report.

Saskatchewan Self-harm Data

Question:
I have a researcher interested in a custom tab of data on Suicidal Thoughts & Attempts in SK from the 2015-16 CCHS. They’re hoping for two tabulations based on the following:

Meadow Lake and Surrounding Area

Meadow Lake (city)

Loon Lake (village)

Makwa (village)

Goodsoil (village)

Dorintosh (village)

Rapid View (village)

Green Lake (northern village)


La Ronge and Surrounding Area

La Ronge (northern town) 

Air Ronge (northern village)

Would a custom tab of data at the level of the two broad areas (not the individual communities) be possible?

Answer:
Unfortunately the number of respondents in the two requested geography groupings are too small to provide any estimates.

Follow-Up Answer:
Have you tried the Saskatchewan Coroners Service Northern Regional Office?

It could be worthwhile.  About four years ago I was able to obtain youth suicide numbers for some Ontario Indigenous communities by going to my regional supervising coroner office who then referred me to the right contact at the central office.  I am pretty sure I started out with a phone call to my regional office.  The contact I was referred to at the chief coroner’s office ran a special table for our researcher.

Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) - Custom Tab Request

Question:
I am helping a researcher interested in using the employee version of the (WES) to explore “within-organization discrimination against parents who take maternity/paternity leave”, “does leave results in discrimination?” and “is the person in a leadership position” (this last question seems hardest to answer). I discovered the WES pdf reports on archived Stat Can pages and saw the synthetic files on . I am wondering if any additional tables exist? Would this be something that could be requested via a custom tab?

For the time being, I will be recommending exploration (and sub setting) of the GSS and LFS.

Answer:
In regards to the WES, the data is solely available through the RDC - custom tabulations aren’t possible.

CCHS 2015 and Applying Survey Weights

Question:
A graduate student has asked me where to find the survey weights for the CCHS 2015: Nutrition Component, Food and ingredient details.  In particular she’s interested in weighting the FIDDCON variable (Location of food consumption).  There is no survey weight variable for the ‘Food and ingredient details’ section of the CCHS on ODESI.  Variables often used for developing a sample/constructing weights were collected in the CCHS (age, gender, geography) and there is a Weights variable for the Canadian Community Health Survey, 2015-2016: Annual Component on ODESI, but age/gender/geo are not part of the ‘Food and ingredients details’ data set in which FIDDCON is included.  I don’t see a ‘key’/common variable that could connect the weights from the Annual Component dataset to the Food and ingredients details data set.  I’d appreciate any help figuring out how to obtain the survey weights for this part of the survey, or help understanding what I am missing about how survey weights are used.

Additionally, I’ve been reading through the documentation for CCHS2015 and having a hard time reconciling the various components and timelines and the numbers of respondents to each part of the survey.  If there’s someone on the list who is relatively familiar with this survey, I’d love to have a 30-minute phone chat about it, please just let me know a couple of times you’d be available this week or next.

Answer:
I’ve received the following response from subject matter:

“The survey weights are found in the HS file. The researcher will need to merge the FID file with the HS file in order to apply the survey weights.”

Survival analysis or Time-to-Event datasets

Question:
I have a graduate student wondering if there are any microdata sets from Statistics Canada that might be useful for survival analysis. The topic or focus of the data is not important, so long as the dataset would lend itself to this type of analysis. He already has datasets from hospital discharges, but is looking for others. Basically the dataset would need to contain microdata (not aggregated) and provide information on the time elapsed before an event happens. Common subjects are disease onset or death, mechanical failure of equipment, etc., but again any topic would work.

I hope I have explained this well enough to be understood (I only grasp it at a basic level myself!). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer:
I’ve received quite a lengthy response from subject matter that will hopefully help some:

“To clarify, by “time-to-event”, is the student looking for longitudinal data? For example, are they looking for data points regarding what happens in between two things (i.e. what happens to my health from the point when I am diagnosed with a  disease to when I die?)

To my knowledge, there are no longitudinal Health Public Use Microdata Files on any topic (deaths, disease onset, et cetera).  The National Population Health Survey (or NPHS) was longitudinal, but, by the very nature of longitudinal data, it does not lend well to PUMF analysis. As such, we only offer NPHS data for reference years 1994 – 1995, 1996 – 1997, and 1998 – 1999 and there is no longitudinal element to the PUMF. I have attached the NPHS PUMF questionnaire here in case the student might see some data points of interest. We also have PUMFs for the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). These offer a greater range of reference periods – dating back to 2000 and in two-year intervals up to and including 2016. I have attached that questionnaire as well. If these options might work - we can offer the access for free.

Normally, to acquire data like this, some researchers apply for record linkages. This enables them to link one thing (hospital records) to another thing (death certificates) in order to make meaning about how the two records might work together regarding outcomes. However, this is not a dataset and requires an application, approvals, and is usually done on a record by record basis. I have attached a copy of the application form for record linkage to this message just in case, though I honestly do not think this is what would best meet the needs of the student. 

CIHI (https://www.cihi.ca/en/access-data-and-reports ) might also be able to offer some information relating to patient experiences, hospital stays, health outcomes, emergency care, et cetera.”

Coroner and Medical Examiner Database

Question:
I read in the Daily today that the Canadian Coroner and Medical Examiner Database, 2006-2017 was released today (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/190429/dq190429a-eng.htm). I clicked on the “Tables” button and there are 2 tables listed:

• Coroner and medical examiner investigated deaths and mortality rates, by age group, 13-10-0386-01
• Coroner and medical examiner investigated deaths and mortality rates, by sex, 13-10-0387-01

However, when you search for the same data through the “Results and documentation of surveys and statistical programs” page (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/surveys/5125), it is only showing one data file - Coroner and medical examiner investigated deaths and mortality rates, by sex (13-10-0387-01).

If you search for “coroner” from the main data page you get the 2 tables that are listed in the Daily.

Is there a reason that the table by age group does not show up in the survey page about the CCMED? Or has it just been missed?

Answer:
It was indeed missed! Subject matter has forwarded the information to the department responsible for updating the web content.

CHMS obesity data

Question:
I have a researcher who is looking for data from the CHMS on obesity.

They are hoping to have the data from this table for 2007 (this table only has data between 2009-2017)

Table  13-10-0373-01   Overweight and obesity based on measured body mass index, by age group and sex

Answer:
We’ve received the following response from subject matter:
“In the table provided, you can look at footnote 2, it reads ‘’Data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey are collected over a two-year period from a sample of approximately 5,700 respondents. Cycle 1 data collected from March 2007 to February 2009. Cycle 2 data collected from August 2009 to December 2011. Data collected from January to December of the following year for subsequent cycles.”


Unfortunately we were restricted with the naming of the columns, therefore the 2009 column includes all of Cycle 1, which was collected from March 2007 to February 2009.”

2017 CCHS Data for 18-29 Age Group

Question:
I have researcher from a smoking cessation project looking for data from the 2017 CCHS covering a different age range than the standard products report. We know the PUMF is probably a year away. Would this require a custom tabulation?

1. young adult (18-29) current smoking prevalence (past 30-days) in Ontario

2. and how this rate compares with the national average (or even other provinces) for the same age group, young adult (18-29)

3. young adult (18-29) daily smoking prevalence in Ontario

4. young adult (18-29) occasional smoking prevalence in Ontario

Answer:
We’ve received the following response from subject matter:
“We can run the numbers for the researcher, however, could you clarify with them if for the first estimate they would like the prevalence of current daily or occasional smokers or the prevalence of those who smoked a cigarette in the past 30 days?”

Follow-up Question:
I checked with the researcher, and here’s their reply:

For the first inquiry, primarily, I would like to know whether or not they have smoked a cigarette in the past 30 days.

However, I’d also be very interested to see the current smoking rate (daily + occasional), as well to compare the two data.

Looking at CCHS 2016 on ODESI, this would be question SMK_Q010 for the past 30 days, but also very interested in SMK_Q005, provided that these questions did not change for CCHS 2017.

Follow-up Answer:
Please see the following response from subject matter:

Here are the requested estimates:

Smoked cigarettes within the past 30 days, population aged 18 to 29, 2017
	Estimate (%)	95% CI
Ontario†	16.4	(13.9, 18.9)
Canada (Excluding territories)	19.1*	(17.7, 20.5)
By province
Newfoundland and Labrador	28.2*	(20.7, 35.6)
Prince Edward Island	18.3ᴱ	(10.2, 26.3)
Nova Scotia	22.5ᴱ	(15.6, 29.3)
New Brunswick	18.3ᴱ	(10.9, 25.7)
Quebec	22.8*	(20.1, 25.6)
Manitoba	22.0ᴱ	(15.5, 28.5)
Saskatchewan	26.3*	(19.6, 33.1)
Alberta	21.8*	(18.3, 25.3)
British Columbia	15.3	(12.1, 18.5)
† reference category
* significantly different from Ontario population (p-value < 0.05)
ᴱ use with caution (these data have a coefficient of variation between 15.1% and 35.0%)
Source: Canadian Community Health Survey, 2017

Current daily or occasional smokers, population aged 18 to 29, 2017
	Daily or occasional smokers		Daily smokers		Occasional smokers
	Estimate (%)	95% CI	Estimate (%)	95% CI	Estimate (%)	95% CI
Canada (Excluding territories)	19.1	(17.7, 20.5)	10.7	(9.6, 11.8)	8.4	(7.4, 9.3)
Ontario	16.2	(13.8, 18.7)	10.2	(8.0, 12.4)	6.0	(4.6, 7.5)
Source: Canadian Community Health Survey, 2017

CCHS Rapid Response Files

Question:
I have a student looking to access data from two of the rapid response components of the CCHS: 

Food skills – knowledge, planning and transference of skills (2012)
Food skills – mechanical skills and food conceptualization (2013)  
I'm thinking that they are likely not available as PUMFs, as via odeso I am only seeing documentation for the first, and nothing for the second, an no further luck on the EFT. Just want to throw it out there to the community though to see if anyone has insights and/or if anyone knows if they may perhaps be available instead via RDCs before I go any further. 

Answer:
Subject matter has responded with the following:
“These 2 Rapid response files are available via RDC request.”

Sex Education in the Schools

Question:
I just received this request from a prof.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

“I was looking for any sort of general population survey that actually measured whether someone had been exposed to sex education in their schooling. Hopefully, some other relevant aspects of their behaviour would be measured, but the key thing is a question measuring exposure to formal sex ed.”

Answer:
We’ve received the following from subject matter:

“Please note that we do not have data that actually measured whether someone had been exposed to sex education in their schooling (details about specific classes or data before postsecondary.)”

Hospital-Level Employment Data

Question:
 I’ve got a researcher interested in turnover/retention, absenteeism, and injury rates for nurses at Ontario hospitals. I know CIHI has some related data at the province level, but does anyone know of any source more granular? We’ll be looking at the LHIN level too (for as long as Ontario still has them…)

Answer:
We’ve been able to track down the following on our end:

“Please note that we have very limited information on Ontario nurse turnover/retention, absenteeism, and injury rates, however, we have found some information on injuries from the Ontario government Web site that could be of interest for you:
Injuries
https://www.ontario.ca/document/health-care-sector-plan-2017-18/health-care-sector-injury-statistics

Also, we have found some information on turnover/retention, absenteeism from the College of Nurses of Ontario:
Turnover
http://www.cno.org/en/news/2016/december-2016/2016-statistics-reports-now-available/


To obtain additional information, we suggest contacting both of these organisation.”

2015 CCHS-Nutrition PUMFs and Master Files

Question:
I have a researcher who is interested in knowing the fruit and vegetable consumption of Canadians and wonders if either the PUMF's or Master Files from the 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS)-Nutrition will provide such data. The researcher would ideally like to know the amount consumed (e.g. number of apples), the variety (e.g. what kind of apple?), and whether the food item was organic.  

I have reviewed my notes from the Jan. 30, 2018 webinar on the 2015 CCHS-Nutrition​ and scanned the documentation for the eight files in ODESI. I have also had a quick look at the PUMF's in ODESI. It is clearly a very complex survey! As far as I can tell from the documentation, this type of data and level of detail is not available from the PUMF's. Is that correct? 

​​Slide # 23 from the webinar notes that questions about fruit and vegetable consumption were dropped from the Health Component module of the 2015 CCHS-Nutrition. I wasn't sure how to interpret the following information from the Reference Guide to Understanding and Using the Data:  2015 Canadian Community Health Survey -- Nutrition (June 2017):

"The PUMF for 2015 CCHS-Nutrition will include data on nutrients from foods, a summary of vitamin/mineral supplement use, and the health questionnaire data. Additional data at more detailed levels such as food, ingredient, and recipes along with Canada Food Guide tiers may be included depending upon the file structure and the results from a mandatory confidentiality review.” (p. 41)

If the information is not available from the PUMF's, would it be available through the Master Files which are in the RDC's? Unfortunately, metadata for these Master Files is not yet posted on Statcan's NESSTAR server. 

Answer:
We’ve received the following response from subject matter:

“The CCHS-Annual continues to have the Fruit and Vegetable consumption question module (FVC) as part of their core content asked every year.  The module asks about the frequency of eating fruit in the past month, but doesn’t get into the detail of what fruit.

The 2015 CCHS-Nutrition asked detail about what specific foods are eaten, but only for one day, a 24-hour dietary recall.  The goal of this is to get data on what nutrients are consumed – not to get estimates of what exact foods provide those nutrients.  However, since apples are frequently consumed throughout the population, it is possible to use the survey data to estimate how many apples are eaten on any given day, and the characteristics of people who eat them.  This is not recommended for less frequently consumed foods, say lasagna.

The survey coded each food reported by respondents with Health Canada’s Canadian Nutrient File (CNF) codes, a subset of which are included in the survey documentation known as the FDC file.  This file contains the name description of a food, ingredient or recipe, a code specific to it, and a string of nutrient values for one gram of that food.  The CNF is also available on Health Canada’s website, so the researcher can look at that until the Nesstar metadata are available.  The data are limited to the level of detail available there.  The CNF/FDC file does not have separate entries for any organic versus non-organic foods because there is little difference in the nutrient content. 

For apples, the following information is relevant to the researcher’s questions:

• There are data related to apples:
• a general code for apples (summary Bureau of Nutritional Science food group variable FDC_FGR = 40B),
• various detailed codes (variable FID_FID ) but these only differentiate when the nutrient content is different (e.g. fresh versus canned, dehydrated, frozen).
• There are no data related to specific varieties of apples (e.g. Spartan versus Gala, McIntosh, Pink Lady) because the differences in nutrients per gram of apple are not statistically important (i.e. the data for all fresh apples would be coded to one code)
• The code variable FID-FID has to be used in conjunction with the label attached to the code, which are located in two other variables on the FDC file:  FDC_DEN (Food name – CNF – English) and FDC_DFR (Food name – CNF – French).  For example: FID_FID = 1487 FDC_DEN = “Apple, canned, sweetened, sliced, heated” 
• All of these variables are available in both the master file and the PUMF.  The analysis using the PUMF might be a little easier because the PUMF HS file includes derived variables that aggregate the gram amount of food eaten that day for certain foods, and apple is one of those foods (the variable is BNSD40B – “Gram Weight – Apple”).”

Data on Intentional Self-harm

Question:
I have a researcher who is using data on suicide/intentional self-harm to develop models for prediction and prevention. The CCHS and the DAD has taken them most of the way, but they’re also hoping for aggregate data on whether or not someone who has self-harmed and survived intended to die. Apparently they were able to find this information for Australia, and they’re hoping the same is collected and disseminated in Canada (at the country-wide level). I haven’t been able to find anything. Does anyone know if this data available anywhere?

Answer:
Subject matter has responded with the following:

“The CCHS 2015 – 2016 does include a block of suicide-related questions. This was a theme for this survey. I have attached the questionnaire for the convenience of the client. Kindly have them review the entire SUI block of questions. I think the variables SUI_035 and SUI_040 may speak to their line of questioning. However, the only variables that are available for free through the PUMF are DOSUI, SUI_005 and SUI_010. The client could access data for SUI_035 and SUI_040 through a cost-recovery custom tabulation. 

*Note: The original email contained the CCHS 2015-2016 Questionnaire as an attachment.

Sexual Harassment Statistics / Data

Question
Lookinig for sexual harassment statistics and/or data.  Finding sexual assault info.  I can find lots of articles discussing the difference between the two.  Suggestions for sources of this harassment info?

One useful site atThe Canadian Bar Association B C Branch has this webpage is quite illuminating.  https://www.cbabc.org/For-the-Public/Dial-A-Law/Scripts/Employment-and-Social-Benefits/271

Answer
Angus Reid Institute did a survey in 2014 on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace (https://search2.odesi.ca/#/details?uri=%2Fodesi%2Fari-sex-harassment-E-2014.xml) which is available in .

Also, the GSS on victimization (Cycles 28 (2014), 23 (2009), 18 (2004), and 13 (1999)) may have some variables on sexual harassment.

Additionally, I found what appears to be an excellent survey from Australia which won't give us the Canadian data but does look very informative.  May be of interest to people. 

https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/publications/everyone-s-business-fourth-national-survey-sexual

Drug Use Data for Youth

Question:
I just had a phone call from a local high school, with a student who was initially asking about access to the CTADS 2017 PUMF. After a quick conversation we determined that the student doesn’t actually want the data to analyze, but is hoping to get usage rates of an assortment of drugs (cocaine, ecstasy, cannabis, and alcohol) for youth ages 15-25 ish. I couldn’t find tables with this data on the STC site – any ideas where to look?

Answer from DLI:
Although this is specific to BC, you may want to suggest they check out the Adolescent Health Survey (AHS) [http://www.mcs.bc.ca/about_the_bc_ahs] from the McCreary Centre Society. It collects data on alcohol, marijuana and other substance use by BC students in grades 7 to 12.

The results are reported for the province as a whole and in regional reports and special topic reports. Data from the 2018 survey is not yet available; the most recent published data is from the 2013 AHS. Here’s a link to the provincial report:

From Hastings Street to Haida Gwaii: Provincial results of the 2013 BC Adolescent Health Survey. See esp. pp. 34-41. [http://www.mcs.bc.ca/pdf/From_Hastings_Street_To_Haida_Gwaii.pdf]

Also see the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) website on Student Drug Use [http://www.ccdus.ca/Eng/topics/Monitoring-Trends/Student-Drug-Use/Pages/default.aspx].

The CCSA produced a report in 2011 which pulled data on alcohol, cannabis and other drug use from a number of regional surveys, including the BC Adolescent Health Survey that I mentioned in my previous email:

Young, M. M., Saewyc, E., Boak, A., Jahrig, J., Anderson, B., Doiron-Brun, Y., Taylor, S., Pica, L., Laprise, P., and Clark, H. (Student Drug Use Surveys Working Group). (2011). The Cross Canada Report on Student Drug Use: Technical Report. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.
[http://www.ccsa.ca/Resource%20Library/2011_CCSA_Student_Alcohol_and_Drug_Use_en.pdf#search=all%28student%20drug%20use%29]

A short (2-page) version [http://www.ccdus.ca/Resource%20Library/2011_CCSA_Cross-Canada_Report_on_Student_Alcohol_and_Drug_Use_Report_in_Short_en.pdf] of this report is available on the CCSA website, as is a 2-page guide to Trends in Drug Use among Youth (2013) [http://www.ccdus.ca/Resource%20Library/CCSA-Trends-in-Drug-Use-Youth-2012-en.pdf].

Fertility Rates by Province 1965-2015

Question:
I have had a researcher asking for annual fertility rate by province from 1965-2015. They have fertility rates from 2000-2015 from Table 13-10-0418-01. We also have number of births by province in Table 17-10-0008-01 going back to 1971. We can find national fertility rates in the OECD numbers going back to 1970, but they need provincial.

I think historical data is likely available in print documents and we are able to get fertility rates from 1986-1996 in the Vital Statistics Compendium. I am emailing to ask if I am missing anything. Is there one source where I can get provincial fertility rates going back to 1965 or will we need to use multiple sources including print to get these numbers. Any recommendations are welcome.

Answer:
Subject Matter sent an excel file containing some the requested information.

CCHS-2018 -- Question about modules selected by particular provinces

Question:
A researcher has asked a question about the CCHS-2018. Apparently there are modules in this survey from which provinces can choose to opt out. She would like to know if there is a way to determine which provinces are and are not participating in these optional modules. Is there a way to find out? Perhaps this question might be one for an RDC analyst instead of the DLI program?

Answer:
Subject matter has responded with the following:

 “The RDC webpage has been updated to provide more information to researchers about the 2015 CCHS Redesign and the impact of comparability between past cycle since the Redesign.

 We have also add a section about the Content differences over cycles (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/rdc/cencchs):

Researchers should be aware that optional modules are not available for each CCHS cycle and are only selected by some provinces and territories. To obtain a copy of the provincial and territorial selection of the Canadian Community Health Survey – Annual Component, contact Client Services (613-951-1746 or statcan.hd-ds.statcan@canada.ca).

You will find attached the CCHS Content Selection_ESCC sélection du contenu 2000-2018 that can be provided to the researcher.”