Knowledge of an Aboriginal language and school outcomes for children and adults

This study uses data from the child and adult components of the 2001 Canadian Aboriginal Peoples Survey to examine what factors are related to speaking an Aboriginal language and how speaking an Aboriginal language is related to school outcomes. Even after controlling for child and family factors (age, sex, health status, household income, number of people living in the household, and living in an urban or rural area), speaking an Aboriginal language was associated with positive school outcomes for young children aged 6 to 14 years old if they learned the language in school, but a lower likelihood of having completed high school for 20 to 34-year olds. Possible reasons for this difference between child and adult results are discussed

What Statistics Canada Survey Data Sources are Available to Study Neurodevelopmental Conditions and Disabilities in Children and Youth?

Researchers with an interest in examining and better understanding the social context of children suffering from neurodevelopmental disabilities can benefit by using data from a wide variety of Statistics Canada surveys as well as the information contained in administrative health databases. Selective use of a particular survey and database can be informative particularly when demographics, samples, and content align with the goals and outcomes of the researcher’s questions of interest. Disabilities are not merely conditions in isolation. They are a key part of a social context involving impairment, function, and social facilitators or barriers, such as work, school and extracurricular activities. Socioeconomic factors, single parenthood, income, and education also play a role in how families cope with children’s disabilities. Statistics indicate that five per cent of Canadian children aged five to 14 years have a disability, and 74 per cent of these are identified as having a neurodevelopmental condition and disability. A number of factors must be taken into account when choosing a source of survey data, including definitions of neurodevelopmental conditions, the target group covered by the survey, which special populations are included or excluded, along with a comparison group, and the survey’s design. Surveys fall into categories such as general health, disability-specific, and children and youth. They provide an excellent opportunity to look at the socioeconomic factors associated with the health of individuals, as well as how these conditions and disabilities affect families. However rich the information gleaned from survey data, it is not enough, especially given the data gaps that exist around the health and well-being of children and older youths. This is where administrative and other data can be used to complement existing data sources. Administrative data offer specific information about neurological conditions that won’t be collected in general population surveys, given the nature of such surveys. While researchers can glean information from survey data such as functional health and disability, social inclusion or exclusion, and the role of social determinants in the lives of these children and their families, administrative data can identify rare neurodevelopmental conditions and disabilities not captured in general surveys. Analyzing information from all these sources can lead to a more nuanced understanding of the economic and social impacts, and functional limitations in daily living, that patients and their families experience with certain neurodevelopmental conditions and disabilities. Statistics Canada surveys offer a plethora of information for researchers interested in neurodevelopmental disabilities and social determinants of health. As these surveys are national in their scope, they provide a wealth of information for statistical analysis from people across Canada. This information can be used to inform researchers, policy makers, and families of people who live with neurodevelopmental conditions and disabilities. For example, sophisticated microsimulation modelling techniques have been conducted to project the health and economic impacts from such disabilities 20 years into the future. Such projections will be vital for policy-makers tasked with designing services and programs to assist these people. Much work remains to be done, however. Statistics Canada has already begun working on the potential for using administrative data to conceptualize childhood disability, as well as using data that has been anonymized in national administrative databases to study the health of Canada’s children. These are excellent bases from which to build future research

Participation in Physical Activity for Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders

The purpose of this study was to compare rates of participation for children (4–9 years of age) with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) with and without externalizing behavior problems (EBPs) with children without disability and to examine mediators of the relation between disability and physical activity participation. Data for this study were drawn from Cycle 7 (2006-07) of the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY). The frequency of children's participation in organized sports or physical activities varied depending on the child's health condition with children with NDDs and both NDDs and EBPs participating least in organized sports or physical activities followed by children with EBPs only. In contrast, there were no statistically significant differences by health group for children's participation in unorganized sports or physical activities. These differences remained even after controlling for the effects of other child and family sociodemographic characteristics, except for children with EBPs only. These findings highlight the importance of considering children's primary and other existing health conditions as well as family sociodemographic characteristics in order to better understand the factors that influence participation in organized physical activities for children with disabilities

Linking Culture and Language to Aboriginal Children’s Outcomes: Lessons from Canadian Data

Aboriginal children have been shown to have poorer health and educational outcomes compared to non-Aboriginal children. Culture is an important determinant of health and well-being, yet it is rarely studied in terms of its association with young children’s outcomes. Language being one component of culture, the revitalization of traditional Aboriginal languages is an important contributor to both individual and community health as well as educational achievement. This paper will summarize multiple studies using data from the Aboriginal Children’s Survey and the Aboriginal Peoples Survey to highlight various outcomes for Aboriginal children in Canada, first in terms of the role of cultural participation, and then specifically speaking an Aboriginal language, on young Aboriginal children’s education and health outcomes. ----- Il a été démontré ailleurs que les enfants autochtones sont en moins bonne santé et ont des résultats scolaires plus faibles relativement aux enfants non autochtones. La culture est un déterminant important de la santé et du bien-être, mais on ne l’étudie que rarement en fonction de son association aux résultats scolaires chez les jeunes enfants. La langue étant un des constituants de la culture, la revitalisation des langues autochtones traditionnelles est un contributeur important à la santé individuelle et communautaire ainsi qu’à la réussite scolaire. Cet article résume plusieurs études en utilisant les données de l’Enquête sur les enfants autochtones et l’Enquête auprès des peuples autochtones pour mettre en évidence divers résultats sur l’éducation et la santé pour les enfants autochtones au Canada – d’abord en termes du rôle de la participation culturelle, puis en ciblant ceux qui parlent une langue autochtone particulière

Conceptualizing childhood health problems using survey data: a comparison of key indicators

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many definitions are being used to conceptualize child health problems. With survey data, commonly used indicators for identifying children with health problems have included chronic condition checklists, measures of activity limitations, elevated service use, and health utility thresholds. This study compares these different indicators in terms of the prevalence rates elicited, and in terms of how the subgroups identified differ.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Secondary data analyses used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, which surveyed a nationally representative sample of Canadian children (n = 13,790). Descriptive analyses compared healthy children to those with health problems, as classified by any of the key indicators. Additional analyses examined differences between subgroups of children captured by a single indicator and those described as having health problems by multiple indicators.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This study demonstrates that children captured by any of the indicators had poorer health than healthy children, despite the fact that over half the sample (52.2%) was characterized as having a health problem by at least one indicator. Rates of child ill health differed by indicator; 5.6% had an activity limitation, 9.2% exhibited a severe health difficulty, 31.7% reported a chronic condition, and 36.6% had elevated service use. Further, the four key indicators captured different types of children. Indicator groupings differed on child and socio-demographic factors. Compared to children identified by more than one indicator, those identified only by the severe health difficulty indicator displayed more cognitive problems (p < 0.0001), those identified only by the chronic condition checklist had a greater likelihood of reporting allergies or asthma (p < 0.0001), and those identified as having elevated service use only were more affluent (p = 0.01) and showed better overall health (p < 0.0001). Children identified by only a single indicator were less likely to have serious health problems than those identified by two or more indicators.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We provide information useful to researchers when selecting indicators from survey data to identify children with health problems. Researchers and policy makers need to be aware of the impact of such definitions on prevalence rates as well as on the composition of children classified as being in poor health.</p

Longitudinal child data: What can be gained by linking administrative data and cohort data?

Linked administrative data sets are an emerging tool for studying the health and well-being of the population. Previous papers have described methods for linking Canadian data, although few have specifically focused on children, nor have they described linkages between tax outcomes and a cohort of children who are particularly at risk for poor outcomes in adulthood. This paper describes a probabilistic linkage performed by Statistics Canada linking the Montreal Longitudinal Experimental Study (MLES) and the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Kindergarten Children (QLSKC) survey cohorts and administrative tax data from 1992 through 2012. The number of valid cases in the original cohort file with valid tax records was approximately 84%. Rates of false positives, false negatives, sensitivity, and specificity of the linkage were all acceptable. Using the linked file, the relationship of childhood behavioural indicators to adult outcomes including earnings, total household income, and use of social assistance can be investigated in future studies. Innovative methods for creating longitudinal datasets on children can enhance existing data by providing information on a variety of outcomes without an increase in response burden, additional costs, or additional data collection. These can increase the longevity of survey data by examining long-term outcomes associated with early childhood characteristics as well as interventions to enhance child outcomes

Trends in inpatient antiparkinson drug use in the USA, 2001-2012

Purpose: Although therapeutic options and clinical guidelines for Parkinson's disease (PD) have changed significantly in the past 15 years, prescribing trends in the USA remain unknown. The purpose of this population-based cohort study was to examine patterns of inpatient antiparkinson drug use between January 2001 and December 2012 in relation to clinical guideline publication, drug introduction/withdrawal, and emerging safety concerns. Methods: A total of 16,785 inpatients receiving pharmacological treatment for PD were identified in the Cerner Health Facts database. Our primary outcome was standardized (age, sex, race, and census region) annual prevalence of antiparkinson drug use. We also examined antiparkinson medication trends and polypharmacy by age and sex. Results: The most frequently prescribed antiparkinson drugs between 2001 and 2012 were levodopa (85 %) and dopamine agonists (28 %). Dopamine agonist use began declining in 2007, from 34 to 27 % in 2012. The decline followed publication of the American Academy of Neurology's practice parameter refuting levodopa toxicity, pergolide withdrawal, and pramipexole label revisions. Despite safety concerns for cognitive impairment and falls, individuals = 80 years of age demonstrated stable rates of dopamine agonist use from 2001 to 2012. Polypharmacy was most common in younger patients. Conclusions: Dopamine agonist use declined from 2007 to 2012, suggesting that increased awareness of safety issues and practice guidelines influenced prescribing. These events appear to have minimally influenced treatment provided to older PD patients. Antiparkinson prescribing trends indicate that safety and best practice information may be communicated effectively.Fil: Crispo, James. University of Ottawa; Canadá. University of Pennsylvania; Estados UnidosFil: Fortin, Yannick. University of Ottawa; CanadáFil: Thibault, Dylan P.. University of Pennsylvania; Estados UnidosFil: Emons, Matthew. Cerner Corporation; Estados UnidosFil: Bjerre, Lise M.. University of Ottawa; Canadá. Bruyère Research Institute; CanadáFil: Kohen, Dafna E.. University of Ottawa; CanadáFil: Pérez Lloret, Santiago. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Mattison, Donald. Risk Sciences International; Canadá. University of Ottawa; CanadáFil: Willis, Allison W.. University of Pennsylvania; Estados UnidosFil: Krewski, Daniel. University of Ottawa; Canad

Using Canadian administrative health data to measure the health of caregivers of children with and without health problems: A demonstration of feasibility.

Introduction Caregivers of children with health problems experience poorer health than the caregivers of healthy children. To date, population-based studies on this issue have primarily used survey data. Objectives We demonstrate that administrative health data may be used to study these issues, and explore how non-categorical indicators of child health in administrative data can enable population-level study of caregiver health. Methods Dyads from Population Data British Columbia (BC) databases, encompassing nearly all mothers in BC with children aged 6-10 years in 2006, were grouped using a non-categorical definition based on diagnoses and service use. Regression models examined whether four maternal health outcomes varied according to indicators of child health. Results 162,847 mother-child dyads were grouped according to the following indicators: Child High Service Use (18%) vs. Not (82%), Diagnosis of Major and/or Chronic Condition (12%) vs. Not (88%), and Both High Service Use and Diagnosis (5%) vs. Neither (75%). For all maternal health and service use outcomes (number of physician visits, chronic condition, mood or anxiety disorder, hospitalization), differences were demonstrated by child health indicators. Conclusions Mothers of children with health problems had poorer health themselves, as indicated by administrative data groupings. This work not only demonstrates the research potential of using routinely collected health administrative data to study caregiver and child health, but also the importance of addressing maternal health when treating children with health problems. Keywords Population data, linked data, case-mix, children with special health care need