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A Canadian peer-reviewed journal of population health and health services research

June 2011

Primary mental health care visits in self-reported data versus provincial administrative records

by JoAnne L. Palin, Elliot M. Goldner, Mieke Koehoorn and Clyde Hertzman

General practitioners (GPs) are the main source of mental health care for most Canadians. Information about the number of times individuals talk with GPs about mental health concerns is used for a variety of purposes, such as assessing adherence to treatment follow-up guidelines. The major sources of population-level data on primary mental health care visits are surveys, particularly the 2002 Canadian Community Health Survey: Mental Health and Well-being (CCHS 1.2), and provincial administrative health records, which the Public Health Agency of Canada now uses for national surveillance of "treated" mental health issues. Yet evidence from two previous studies indicates that survey data provide higher within-individual estimates of the number of mental health visits than do provincial administrative data.

Cognitive performance of Canadian seniors

by Heather Gilmour

Cognition is "the mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgement." Some decrease in cognition is expected at older ages, but the decline is not uniform across all cognitive tasks or for all individuals. Impaired cognition can have health consequences, such as first stroke, falls, and institutionalization. It may reduce an individual's ability to communicate pain to health care providers, carry out instrumental activities of daily living, and cope with chronic disease symptoms, perform selfcare and adhere to medication instructions.

May 2011

Associations between household food insecurity and health outcomes in the Aboriginal population (excluding reserves)

by Noreen Willows, Paul Veugelers, Kim Raine and Stefan Kuhle

Food insecurity exists when the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or the ability to acquire such food in socially acceptable ways is limited or uncertain. It can range from the fear of not being able to provide or obtain food to hunger due to food shortages. The deprivation of basic need represented by food insecurity is a possible precursor to suboptimal dietary intakes and compromised health and well-being. Food insecurity is thus an important public health issue, particularly for economically marginalized groups including Aboriginal peoples.

Psychometric properties, factorial structure, and measurement invariance of the English and French versions of the Medical Outcomes Study social support scale

by Annie Robitaille, Heather Orpana and Cameron N. McIntosh

Social support plays an important role in successful aging, physical health, mortality, and mental health. Very broadly, it can be defined as the help furnished by an individual's social network, such as the provision of information, financial aid or emotional support. To understand the association between specific types of social support and mental and physical health, it is recommended that researchers use measures that include as many dimensions as possible and focus on types of support that have been related to positive health outcomes.

April 2011

Breast cancer incidence and neighbourhood income

by Marilyn J. Borugian, John J. Spinelli, Zenaida Abanto, Chen Lydia Xu and Russell Wilkins

Incidence and mortality rates for most chronic diseases including several types of cancer are higher among people of lower socio-economic status. By contrast, for female breast cancer in developed countries, the relationship may be inverted, with women of higher socio-economic status having higher rates, even when risk factors that differ by socio-economic status such as parity, age at first birth and hormone use are taken into account. Only one earlier study examined the risk of breast cancer in relation to socio-economic status in Canada, and it focused on the effects of passive smoking.

Conditional survival analyses across cancer sites

by Larry F. Ellison, Heather Bryant, Gina Lockwood and Lorraine Shack

Survival statistics are an indicator of the effectiveness of cancer detection and treatment. These statistics are used to compare cancer control over time and across jurisdictions. They are also of interest to clinicians providing direct care and to patients, who usually want an estimate of their prognosis.