Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) – Annual component

Complement to the user guide Public Use Microdata Files 2010 and 2009–2010

November 2011

1.0 One year and two year files
2.0 Questionnaire
3.0 Conversion of CCHS 2010 and 2009–2010 Master Files to Public Use Microdata Files (PUMF)
4.0 Content
5.0 Health Region Groupings

The following document is a complement to the 2010 and 2009–2010 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) Microdata User Guide. It presents the approach used to transform the 2010 and 2009–2010 Master files into Public Use Microdata Files (PUMF), how the content differs between the two PUMFs, and lists which health regions have been grouped.

1.0 One year and two year files

In addition to the two year PUMF, which has been produced since the survey’s first cycle (Cycle 1.1 – 2000–2001), a one year PUMF has also been introduced for 2010. The new annual PUMF covers a 12 month collection period and was produced with the same approach used for the two year file. While the one year file has a sample size half the size of the two year file, it has additional modules not available in the two year file (see section 4).

2.0 Questionnaire

The 2010 questionnaire serves as reference for both data files, 2010 and 2009–2010.

3.0 Conversion of CCHS 2010 and 2009–2010 Master Files to Public Use Microdata Files (PUMF)

The approach for creating a PUMF is intended to balance the requirements for maintaining respondent confidentiality by minimising disclosure risks, while providing the most useful data to users at the health region level. The following paragraphs outline some of the procedures applied to convert the CCHS master file into a PUMF.

Health regions: Health regions fall under provincial jurisdiction. As mentioned in Section 5.2 of the User Guide, there are 117 health regions across Canada. Thus, the master data file provides representative information for 117 HRs.

Some health regions have population sizes that were considered to be too small to appear individually in the PUMFs. These health regions were grouped with other(s) for the purpose of publication. The approach for keeping or collapsing health region geography in the PUMF entails applying a minimum population size for the given geography – 70, 0000 inhabitants. This resulted in:

1. collapsing 30 HRs in 14 health region groupings in all provinces except Quebec, Nova Scotia, Alberta, and British Columbia;
2. grouping the three territories into a single entity, which resulted in the suppression of many optional content modules for the territories;
3. one Quebec HR (Nord-du-Québec) being excluded from the PUMF due to its small population size and its demographic characteristics that did not lend itself well to being collapsed with other HRs;
4. all sample design variables being excluded.

After the grouping of some HR’s, the CCHS PUMFs are comprised of 98 HRs/HR groupings across the country. The list of HR’s before and after collapsing is shown in section 5 of this document.

Optional content suppression: Due to the grouping of some HRs, optional content that was not common to each health region within the grouping would have been suppressed. Since 2005, the regions and provinces have opted to coordinate the optional content selected in order to ensure a uniform selection of optional modules provincially; therefore this suppression was not necessary for any provinces. However, because the three territories were grouped, optional content was suppressed in the territories in cases where only one or two of the territories selected the content.

The 2009–2010 master and PUMF files only contain optional content data for modules that were asked in both years, which applies to the vast majority of optional content data. Since the 2010 Master and PUMF file only cover one year, it explains why certain modules are part of the one year files but not the two year files.

Disclosure control: As mentioned earlier, the 2010 and 2009–2010 PUMFs are designed to preserve the analytical value of data as much as possible while ensuring the potential for identifying individual respondents is minimal.

Several controls were implemented in creating the two PUMF files. Restriction methods such as removing direct identifiers (e.g., sample ID, name, telephone number), reducing, recoding, and/or suppressing detail based on small frequencies given specific socio-demographic characteristics were used. Examples of variables from the master files that were not included in the PUMFs due to a high risk of disclosure (either because the variable is a risk on its own or is so in combination with other variables) include: attempted suicide in the past 12 months, has skin cancer, and whether the respondent is presently pregnant.

In addition, some response categories were deemed to be at possible risk of disclosure and were regrouped so as to be included on the PUMF. Examples include: body part affected by most serious injury, number of times consulting health professionals, number of years since stopping smoking, and main source of household income. With these regroupings in place, the 2010 and 2009–2010 PUMFs contain both fewer variables and are less detailed compared with the corresponding master files, while still preserving the analytical value of the data.

Age of respondent: Respondents’ age is provided as age grouping in the CCHS PUMFs. Most of these groupings are found in 5-year age bands, from age 20-24 to age 75-79, with all respondents aged 80 and over comprising a single group. Prior to the CCHS 2005 PUMF, youth age groups included those aged 12-14 and 15-19. Beginning with the CCHS 2005 PUMF, the older youth age group has been split between those aged 15-17 and those aged 18-19. As a result, these groupings have three important benefits:

1. BMI data can be presented for those aged 12-17;
2. data for those aged 18-19 is no longer automatically suppressed for variables that were only asked to those aged 18 and over;
3. users can still compare youth data from previous PUMFs by grouping the 15-17 year olds with the 18-19 year olds to create the age group 15-19.

Although information on some variables were collected for people of a specific age bracket, some data for certain ages still had to be suppressed to ensure confidentiality. For example, labour force data were collected for respondents aged 15 to 75. Because there is an age group 75-79 on the PUMF, publishing labour force data for 75-year olds would reveal their exact age by default. Therefore, labour force data (LBS) and physical activities – facilities at work (PAF) are only available on the PUMFs for respondents aged 15-74. Similar suppression was done for education (EDU) data of 12-14 year olds and maternal experience (MEX, MXS, and MXA) data for 50-year old women.

Special suppression was done for the three modules on maternal experiences (MEX, MXS, and MXA), data for women aged 15-19 because there was concern for a high risk of disclosure for women in this age group. As such, though MEX, MXS, and MXA data on the master file are shown for all women aged 15 to 55, the PUMFs only present data for women aged 20 to 49.

4.0 Content

The CCHS content can be divided into two categories, optional content and common content modules.

Optional content
As mentioned in section 3, the main difference between the 2010 and 2009–2010 PUMFs’ optional content is that the two year file requires a module to have been asked in for both years by a PUMF health region in order to be loaded to the file.

Common content
As mentioned in section 4.1 of the User Guide, common content modules include questions asked of all respondents. This common content is divided into three components: the annual, one year, and two-year common content. What differs between the 2010 and 2009–2010 PUMFs is the one year common content.

The 2010 one year common content is comprised of seven modules. All modules, with the exception of the Neurological conditions module (characterised by high risk of disclosure), are included in the 2010 PUMF.

Out of the remaining six modules (CHP, UCN, H1N, LOP, CC3, CC4) none are in the 2009–2010 PUMF except for the Contact with health professionals (CHP). This module is in both PUMFs since it was part of the one year 2010 common content and was also common content in 2009 due to the fact it was previously part of the Health Care Utilization (HCU) annual common content module.

5.0 Health Region Groupings

The 2010 and 2009–2010 Master files 117 health regions have been grouped into 98 health regions for the PUMFs. Theses groupings are detailed below. The PUMF health regions (variable GEODPMF) are similar to what was produced for previous CCHS years. Users can refer to the Derived Variables documentation to learn which groupings have changed since the 2007–2008 PUMF was published.

Standard table symbols

Health regions

Health regions for dissemination, before PUMF		Health regions for PUMF
Newfoundland		Newfoundland
1011	Eastern Regional Integrated Health Authority	10911	Eastern Regional Integrated Health Authority
1012	Central Regional Integrated Health Authority	10912	Central Regional Integrated Health Authority
1013	Western Regional Integrated Health Authority	10913	Western Region/Labrador-Grenfell Regional Integrated Health Authority
1014	Labrador-Grenfell Regional Integrated Health Authority	…
Prince Edward Island		Prince Edward Island
1101	Kings County	11901	Prince Edward Island
1102	Queens County	…
1103	Prince County
Nova Scotia		Nova Scotia
1201	Zone 1 (DHA 1 and 2)	12901	Zone 1 (DHA 1 and 2)
1202	Zone 2 (DHA 3)	12902	Zone 2 (DHA 3)
1203	Zone 3 (DHA 4 and 5)	12903	Zone 3 (DHA 4 and 5)
1204	Zone 4 (DHA 6 and 7)	12904	Zone 4 (DHA 6 and 7)
1205	Zone 5 (DHA 8)	12905	Zone 5 (DHA 8)
1206	Zone 6 (DHA 9)	12906	Zone 6 (DHA 9)
New Brunswick		New Brunswick
1301	Zone 1	13901	Zone 1
1302	Zone 2	13902	Zone 2
1303	Zone 3	13903	Zone 3
1304	Zone 4	13904	Zones 4 and 5
1305	Zone 5	…
1306	Zone 6	13906	Zones 6 and 7
1307	Zone 7	…
Quebec		Quebec
2401	Région du Bas-Saint-Laurent	24901	Région du Bas-Saint-Laurent
2402	Région du Saguenay - Lac-Saint-Jean	24902	Région du Saguenay - Lac-Saint-Jean
2403	Région de Québec	24903	Région de Québec
2404	Région de la Mauricie et du Centre-du-Québec	24904	Région de la Mauricie et du Centre-du-Québec
2405	Région de l’Estrie	24905	Région de l’Estrie
2406	Région de Montréal	24906	Région de Montréal
2407	Région de l’Outaouais	24907	Région de l’Outaouais
2408	Région de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue	24908	Région de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue
2409	Région de la Côte-Nord	24909	Région de la Côte-Nord
2410	Région du Nord-du-Québec	…
2411	Région de la Gaspésie – Îles-de-la-Madeleine	24911	Région de la Gaspésie – Îles-de-la-Madeleine
2412	Région de la Chaudière – Appalaches	24912	Région de la Chaudière – Appalaches
2413	Région de Laval	24913	Région de Laval
2414	Région de Lanaudière	24914	Région de Lanaudière
2415	Région des Laurentides	24915	Région des Laurentides
2416	Région de la Montérégie	24916	Région de la Montérégie
Ontario		Ontario
3526	Algoma	35926	Algoma
3527	Brant	35927	Brant
3530	Durham	35930	Durham
3531	Elgin – St. Thomas	35931	Elgin – St. Thomas
3533	Grey Bruce	35933	Grey Bruce
3534	Haldimand-Norfolk	35934	Haldimand-Norfolk
3535	Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge	35935	Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge
3536	Halton	35936	Halton
3537	Hamilton	35937	Hamilton
3538	Hastings and Prince Edward Counties	35938	Hastings and Prince Edward
3539	Huron	35939	Huron/Perth
3554	Perth	…
3540	Chatham-Kent	35940	Chatham-Kent
3541	Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington	35941	Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington
3542	Lambton	35942	Lambton
3543	Leeds, Grenville and Lanark	35943	Leeds, Grenville and Lanark
3544	Middlesex-London	35944	Middlesex-London
3546	Niagara	35946	Niagara
3547	North Bay Parry Sound	35947	North Bay Parry Sound/Timiskaming
3563	Timiskaming	…
3549	Northwestern	35949	Northwestern
3551	Ottawa	35951	Ottawa
3552	Oxford	35952	Oxford
3553	Peel	35953	Peel
3555	Peterborough	35955	Peterborough
3556	Porcupine	35956	Porcupine
3557	Renfrew	35957	Renfrew
3558	Eastern Ontario	35958	Eastern Ontario
3560	Simcoe Muskoka	35960	Simcoe Muskoka
3561	Sudbury	35961	Sudbury
3562	Thunder Bay	35962	Thunder Bay
3565	Waterloo	35965	Waterloo
3566	Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph	35966	Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph
3568	Windsor-Essex	35968	Windsor-Essex
3570	York	35970	York
3595	City of Toronto	35995	City of Toronto
Manitoba		Manitoba
4610	Winnipeg RHA	46910	Winnipeg RHA
4615	Brandon RHA	46915	Brandon/Assiniboine RHA
4645	Assiniboine RHA	…
4620	North Eastman RHA	46920	North and South Eastman RHA
4625	South Eastman RHA	…
4630	Interlake RHA	46931	Interlake/Parkland RHA
4660	Parkland RHA	…
4640	Central RHA	46940	Central RHA
4670	NOR-MAN RHA	46970	NOR-MAN/Burntwood-Churchill
4685	Burntwood RHA/Churchill RHA	…
Saskatchewan		Saskatchewan
4701	Sun Country RHA	47901	Sun Country/Five Hills/Cypress
4702	Five Hills RHA	…
4703	Cypress RHA
4704	Regina Qu’Appelle RHA	47904	Regina Qu’Appelle RHA
4705	Sunrise RHA	47905	Sunrise/Kelsey Trail
4708	Kelsey trail RHA	…
4706	Saskatoon RHA	47906	Saskatoon RHA
4707	Heartland RHA	47907	Heartland/Prairie North
4710	Prairie North RHA	…
4709	Prince Albert Parkland RHA	47909	Prince Albert Parkland/Mamawetan-Keewatin Yatthé-Athabaska
4714	Mamawetan Churchill River RHA/ Keewatin Yatthé RHA/Athabaska Health Authority	…
Alberta		Alberta
4831	South Zone	48931	South Zone
4832	Calgary Zone	48932	Calgary Zone
4833	Central Zone	48933	Central Zone
4834	Edmonton Zone	48934	Edmonton Zone
4835	North Zone	48935	North Zone
British Columbia		British Columbia
5911	East Kootenay	59911	East Kootenay
5912	Kootenay-Boundary	59912	Kootenay-Boundary
5913	Okanagan	59913	Okanagan
5914	Thompson/Cariboo	59914	Thompson/Cariboo
5921	Fraser East	59921	Fraser East
5922	Fraser North	59922	Fraser North
5923	Fraser South	59923	Fraser South
5931	Richmond	59931	Richmond
5932	Vancouver	59932	Vancouver
5933	North Shore/Coast Garibaldi	59933	North Shore/Coast Garibaldi
5941	South Vancouver Island	59941	South Vancouver Island
5942	Central Vancouver Island	59942	Central Vancouver Island
5943	North Vancouver Island	59943	North Vancouver Island
5951	Northwest	59951	Northwest
5952	Northern Interior	59952	Northern Interior
5953	Northeast	59953	Northeast
Territories		Territories
6001	Yukon Territory	60901	Yukon Territory/Northwest Territories/Nunavut
6101	Northwest Territories	…
6201	Nunavut