Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice
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Health Promot Chronic Dis Prev Can · Mar 2017
Evaluating compression or expansion of morbidity in Canada: trends in life expectancy and health-adjusted life expectancy from 1994 to 2010.
The objective of this study was to investigate whether morbidity in Canada, at the national and provincial levels, is compressing or expanding by tracking trends in life expectancy (LE) and health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) from 1994 to 2010. "Compression" refers to a decrease in the proportion of life spent in an unhealthy state over time. It happens when HALE increases faster than LE. "Expansion" refers to an increase in the proportion of life spent in an unhealthy state that happens when HALE is stable or increases more slowly than LE. ⋯ Our study did not detect a clear overall trend in compression or expansion of morbidity from 1994 to 2010 at the national level in Canada. However, our results suggested an expansion of morbidity in NL and PEI. Our study indicates the importance of continued tracking of the secular trends of life expectancy and HALE in Canada in order to verify the presence of compression or expansion of morbidity. Further study should be undertaken to understand what is driving the observed expansion of morbidity in NL and in PEI.
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Health Promot Chronic Dis Prev Can · Jan 2017
At-a-glance, Emergency department surveillance of thermal burns and scalds, electronic Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program, 2013.
Although fatality and hospitalization rates for burns in Canada have declined over time, less serious cases still commonly present to the emergency department (ED). ⋯ Overall, cases reported in 2013 were scalds and contact burns from hot objects. The leading direct causes of scalds were hot beverages and hot water. The leading causes of contact burns were stoves/ovens and fireplaces/accessories. While the overall proportion of burns was highest among females, males comprised a higher proportion of burns from all mechanisms except scalds.
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Health Promot Chronic Dis Prev Can · Nov 2016
Suicide and self-inflicted injury hospitalizations in Canada (1979 to 2014/15).
The purpose of this paper is to describe the trends and patterns of self-inflicted injuries, available from Canadian administrative data between 1979 and 2014/15, in order to inform and improve suicide prevention efforts. ⋯ Suicides and self-inflicted injuries continue to be a serious - but preventable - public health problem that requires ongoing surveillance.
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Health Promot Chronic Dis Prev Can · Oct 2016
Describing the population health burden of depression: health-adjusted life expectancy by depression status in Canada.
Few studies have evaluated the impact of depression in terms of losses to both premature mortality and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) on the overall population. Health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) is a summary measure of population health that combines both morbidity and mortality into a single summary statistic that describes the current health status of a population. ⋯ The population of adult men and women with depression in Canada had substantially lower healthy life expectancy than those without depression. Much of this gap is explained by lower levels of HRQOL, but premature mortality also plays a role.
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Health Promot Chronic Dis Prev Can · Oct 2016
Report summary Prevalence and monetary costs of dementia in Canada (2016): a report by the Alzheimer Society of Canada.
Dementia prevalence estimates vary among population-based studies, depending on the definitions of dementia, methodologies and data sources and types of costs they use. A common approach is needed to avoid confusion and increase public and stakeholder confidence in the estimates. Since 1994, five major studies have yielded widely differing estimates of dementia prevalence and monetary costs of dementia in Canada. ⋯ The estimated monetary costs of dementia for the same year also varied, from $910 million to $33 billion. This discrepancy is largely due to three factors: (1) the lack of agreed-upon methods for estimating financial costs; (2) the unavailability of prevalence estimates for the various stages of dementia (mild, moderate and severe), which directly affect the amount of money spent; and (3) the absence of tools to measure direct, indirect and intangible costs more accurately. Given the increasing challenges of dementia in Canada and around the globe, reconciling these differences is critical for developing standards to generate reliable information for public consumption and to shape public policy and service development.