Nurses' Supplement to the Canadian Community Health Survey

Question

Right near the end of the questionnaire for the Canadian Community Health Survey, cycle 2.1, there is a Nurses' Supplement.  The data for this supplement does not appear to show up in either the PUMF or the documentation for the PUMF.  However, it does show up in the data dictionary for the Master File,
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/imdb-bmdi/document/3226_D3_T9_V2-eng.pdf pages 1031 through 1036 of 1044.  There doesn't appear to be any information about this previously on the dlilist.  I would assume that the data has been removed from the PUMF for confidentiality purposes, but thought that it might be appropriate to get a confirmation of this?  Thanks
in advance for any information you might shed on this matter.

Answer

I confirmed with Health Division that this data was suppressed from the PUMF.  Here is their response:

"The CCHS 2.1 Nurse's Supplement is not on the PUMF because the sample size was too small to include the supplement on the PUMF without risking the confidentiality of respondents."

Rural Birth Rate

Question

I have a patron looking for birth rate statistics for Canadian rural areas.  I've looked through ESTAT and the Census webpages with no joy.  Am I missing something?

Answer

1) Figure 2.6 in the publication, "Demographic Changes in Canada from 1971
to 2001 across an Urban-to-Rural Gradient" shows the
total fertility rate for rural and urban areas from 1971 to 2001.  The
publication is available at:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/91f0015m/91f0015m2007008-eng.htm

These rates were based on Census data.

The online publication, "Births" (84F0210X) contains a section on fertility but doesn't
break out the differences between urban and rural.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/84f0210x/2006000/5201672-eng.htm

The data source for this publication is the Births Database in Vital
Statistics.

The General Social Survey's Family Cycle (c20 is the latest) provides
some fertility data.  The public use file has a variable (LUC_RSTC) indicating
rural/urban residence, but only for Quebec, Ontario and B.C.

2) For Quebec, you can have birth rate statistics by regions through the Institut de la statistique du Québec Web Site.
http://www.stat.gouv.qc.ca/regions/profils/region_00/region_00.htm

If you follow this link, you will get a map and then will be able to click on each region, click on "demographie" and then on "taux de natalité".

I would be surprised these data not being available for other provinces.

3) There may be a specific reason why the individual is looking for birth rate, and, if that is the case, as indicated, births will be reported in the provinces' vital statistics.  Here is one link that should take you to the vital stats for each province.
http://canadaonline.about.com/od/vitalstatistics/Vital_Statistics_Offices_in_Canada.htm].

However, I wonder how reliably "birth rate" for a specific provincial geopolitical area[i.e. county] in a province can be translated into "rural". I think there may be a problem if provincial registrar's haven't categorized birth data as "rural/nonrural" now and through time. I don't think they have. As well, there would be a problem with definition.

Bollman's and Clemenson's working paper published late last year may be useful for definitions and data:
http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/collection_2008/statcan/21-601-M/21-601-m2008090-eng.pdf

For subprovincial areas, the researcher may wish to look at census figures over a given period, ages 0-4, for CDs, for example.

4) I haven't paid close attention to this so I hope what I have to say is relevant; if I'm off-topic, I apologize for jumping in.  Anyhow, I think it's important to realize that many of the births in the urban areas would have occurred in the rural area, if facilities and personnel were in place to provide this service.

Survey on Financing of Co-Operatives

Question

My colleague was working with these files and made the following observation:

On the just released Survey on Financing of Co-operatives, 2007, the
data are in these two files, English and French.

efco2007dat.xls H1, H2. Caractéristiques des coopératives,
selon les valeurs moyennes de l’actif et du
passif de la coopérative, Canada, 2008

sfco2007dat.xls H1, H2. Characteristics of co-operatives, by
average assets and liabilities of
co-operatives,
Canada, 2008

If one of these files said 2008, I would assume it was a typo. However,
both say 2008, so either the title of the survey is wrong or the file
descriptions are wrong.

Answer
Since the survey was conducted in February and March of 2008, so the
2007 must refer to the reference year, and one way or another, both
years are correct.

However, the real problem with the file description is that the file
contains not only table H1, H2, but a total of about 40 tables, of which
H1, H2 is only the last sheet. I have a list of the titles of all the
English language tables (sorry, haven't checked the French file) at:
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/datalib/inventory/3000/3816.htm
under the Notes section, should anyone find it useful.

Violence and Aboriginal Women

Question

I have a graduate student interested in studying Aboriginal women's experience of violence.  We found this report --

Addressing violence against Aboriginal Women, the Elderly and Children from July 2008, which makes some claims about incidence of violence against Aboriginal women, which it footnotes to:

Measuring Violence Against Women: Statistical Trends.

This contains the reference:
"For the first time, residents of the three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut) were interviewed for the 2004 General Social Survey (GSS) as part of a pilot test and results show that women who live in the territories also experience higher levels of violence."

However, when I search variables in the 2004 GSS, there is no indicator with "aboriginal" as a category, nor is there any "territorial data" at all.

Is there some way of acquiring the survey data that has been collected?

Answer

An analyst in the author division explained that the aboriginal variable was suppressed on the public use microdata file in order to guard against disclosure.  The analyst went on to explain that the data is not even available in the RDCs:

"The data for the territories is not available in the RDCs.  Due to concerns about data quality (which are explained in the attached report), the microdata are not available to researchers outside of the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics who published the report.  We are trying again in the territories for the current GSS (2009) on Victimization, hoping that the improved methods we are using will yield better quality results that could be made available to researchers.  They will not be available until summer 2010 though."

EI Benefits by Gender

Question

A researcher is seeking EI benefits by gender.  She found CANSIM Table 276-0005, but this table doesn’t have a gender variable.

Answer

1)What about the Employment Insurance Coverage Survey (EICS)?

2) That is correct - the codebook for the EICS does indicate that there are variables for sex (SEX), benefits amount (BENAMNT) and benefits type (BENTYP). However, the PUMF is for 2007, so I have also forwarded your question to the author division in the hope that there is a way to get more current data. I will keep you posted.

3)It turns out that the EICS 2007 PUMF is your best bet. There are two separate surveys related to EI:

1. Employment Insurance Coverage Survey (EICS) 2007: this is the annual survey Sandra mentioned. The DLI has the PUMF and it contains the variables you need, but only for 2007.

2. Employment Insurance Statistics - Monthly (EIS): this is a monthly survey for which PUMFs are not produced. The CANSIM table you found comes from this survey.


Unfortunately, the author division of the latter (monthly) survey confirmed that they cannot provide the data presented in CANSIM table 276-0005 broken down by sex, not even for a fee.

Release Date for 2006 APS PUMF

Question

An anxious professor here is wondering if you could give a better idea when the the Aboriginal Peoples Survey 2006 Public Use Microdata File (PUMF) might be released? I checked Products Release page and see it's supposed to be released this month.

Answer


My contact in the Division won't provide me with a specific date at this time, but he did reconfirm their intention to release the PUMF by the end of this month. To be safe, I would expect it to be released towards the end of March.

Sorry I couldn't be of any further assistance.

Canadian Survey of Experiences with Primary Health Care 2008

Question

A researcher here has inquired about the Canadian Survey of Experiences
with Primary Health Care 2008.  The Daily from Thursday February 5, 2009,
states that "The microdata file ... is now available."  I checked the
dlilist and found the appended message from 2008, indicating that there
would be no PUMF, but that the master file would be available via the RDCs.
The researcher has already checked with the RDC and was told that it is not
presently available there, which is what I also found from their web pages.
Would it be possible to check again with the author division to confirm if
and when this survey might be made available to researchers?  Thanks, Gary
Strike.

Answer

The author division provided me with answers to your questions as well as an update on the status of the PUMF for the Canadian Survey of Experiences with Primary Health Care 2008:

1.  A PUMF will be released and is planned for the fall of 2009.

2.  The February 5, 2009 release is announcing that the division itself has microdata from which it can produce custom tabulations.  It did not mean that a microdata file was available to researchers.

3.  While the master file is not presently available at the RDCs, it can be made available through the RDCs if a researcher submits a proposal.  Your researcher should go back to the RDC and enquire about that if they want access to the master file.