Current status: closed
Consultation period: February 17, 2025 to June 20, 2025
Results pending
To minimize the burden on survey participants, the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) seeks to explore new ways to connect with and engage Canadians for direct health measures. This includes the voluntary sharing of health data, such as step count activity levels, self-collected through consumer smart devices. The goal of this engagement activity was to better understand how Canadians prefer to be engaged by Statistics Canada and their views on the use of data from digital technologies and other direct measures. These insights will help Statistics Canada design its products and services to better meet the health data needs of Canadians.
Who was the focus of this consultation
- Academic researchers
- General public
Background
The Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) began collection in 2007 to gather information to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of illnesses and to promote the health and wellness of Canadians. This survey asks questions about health history and health-related lifestyle behaviours along with direct measurements of a range of health factors including physical measures (e.g., height, weight, blood pressure, results from fitness tests) and lab analysis of blood and urine samples. The data collected is used to establish and adjust Canadian benchmarks for a range of health indicators and allows researchers to further understand the relationships between disease risk factors and health conditions such as obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and exposure to infectious diseases and environmental contaminants. The directly measured data developed by the CHMS complements data from self-reported surveys and administrative sources, addressing the gaps in each to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the health of Canadians.
Confidentiality
Statistics Canada is committed to respecting the privacy of consultation participants. All personal information created, held or collected by the Agency is protected by the Privacy Act. For more information on Statistics Canada's privacy policies, please consult the Privacy notice.