Health Reports, June 2022

The June 2022 issue of Health Reports contains three articles.

Immigrants disproportionately represented among hepatitis B virus patients in Canada

While immigrants made up 16% of the Canadian population in 2011, they incurred 37% of hepatitis B virus (HBV) related hospitalizations and 9% of hepatitis C virus (HCV) related hospitalizations from 2004 to 2013. The study "Hospitalization related to chronic hepatitis B and C in recent immigrants in Canada: An immigration administrative data-linked, population-based cohort study," is the first Canadian study to examine HBV- and HCV-related hospitalizations at the national level (except Quebec).

Viral hepatitis is an important public health problem internationally and in Canada. Canadian immigrants from countries where the HBV and HCV are endemic may be at higher risk of liver-related disease than Canadian-born residents. By birth country risk level, 22% of HBV-related hospital events among recent immigrants, and 20% of those related to HCV were among people from high-risk countries.

The study, by researchers from Statistics Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, also showed that recent immigrants contribute to hospitalizations due to HBV and HCV in Canada, and that the HBV contribution to hospitalizations is particularly noted among seniors.

Significant but varying progress in five-year net cancer survival across provinces

The study "Measuring progress in cancer survival across Canadian provinces: Extending the cancer survival index to further evaluate cancer control efforts" provides the first provincial-level comprehensive evaluation of progress in cancer survival for all cancer types combined. The study created a cancer survival index for eight provinces based on cancer cases included in the Canadian Cancer Registry and death information from the Canadian Vital Statistics Death database. This work builds upon a national study released last year.

Since the early 1990s, significant progress has been made in the five-year net cancer survival in each province studied. However, progress in survival has not been uniform across the provinces, and there are currently significant differences in survival index estimates between some provinces. From the 1992-to-1996 period to the 2013-to-2017 period, Alberta (+8.7 percentage points) and Ontario (+8.6 percentage points) experienced the largest increases. The five-year survival index is currently highest in Ontario (64.1%) and lowest in Nova Scotia (60.8%).

The cancer survival index provides public health professionals and policy makers with an overall summary measure of progress in cancer survival to assist them in evaluating the effectiveness of cancer control plans.

A third article, "Prevalence of prescription and non-prescription polypharmacy by frailty and sex among middle-aged and older Canadians," was also released today.

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