12-Month prevalence of depression among single and married mothers in the 1994 National Population Health Survey

While a number of studies have documented higher period prevalence rates of depression among single as compared to married mothers, all of the data have been based upon community surveys of mental illness. In Canada, all of the published work comes from Ontario. As a result, we do not know whether these results hold true for other regions of the country. Using a nationally representative sample, we find, consistent with previous work, that single mothers have almost double the 12-month prevalence rates of married mothers (15.4% versus 6.8%). As well, there are no significant differences in rates of depression between single and married mothers by region/province of the country. Our findings are compared with other epidemiologic data on the mental health of single mothers from Ontario

Aperçu - Que peuvent nous révéler les données des ambulanciers paramédicaux sur la crise des opioïdes au Canada?

La nature de la crise des opioïdes au Canada nécessite des sources de données supplémentaires aptes à dresser un portrait plus fidèle de l’épidémie, afin de fournir aux responsables en santé publique et aux décideurs une base de données probantes solide. Les données des ambulanciers paramédicaux sont un point d’accès aux collectivités où les surdoses surviennent. Les événements préhospitaliers et les circonstances entourant les surdoses d’opioïdes offrent des occasions uniques de recueillir des données probantes pouvant contribuer à la prévention, à la réduction des méfaits et aux efforts de promotion de la santé. À l’aide de données extraites du Service paramédic d’Ottawa (SPO), cette étude de validation de principe a démontré que les données d’intervention ambulancière paramédicale étaient utiles pour obtenir des renseignements épidémiologiques en temps quasi réel (personne, heure et lieu) sur l’épidémie d’opioïdes et pour évaluer les tendances ainsi que les possibilités d’élaborer des déclencheurs d’alerte. Entre janvier et juin 2017, le SPO a répondu à une moyenne de quatre appels liés aux opioïdes par semaine. À chaque fois, 0,5 mg de naloxone ont en moyenne été administrés. Pour la période à l’étude, les tendances linéaires montrent une faible augmentation des appels, non significative (p = 0,18). Le volume d’appels a augmenté entre le 16 et le 29 avril 2017. Selon les médias locaux, ce pic dans les interventions ambulancières paramédicales est attribuable à l’arrivée de fentanyl de qualité supérieure à Ottawa. Avec une validation plus poussée, ces données paramédicales pourraient potentiellement constituer une nouvelle source de données pour la surveillance des surdoses liées aux opioïdes

At-a-glance - What can paramedic data tell us about the opioid crisis in Canada?

The nature of Canada’s opioid crisis necessitates additional data sources that can provide a more comprehensive picture of the epidemic, in order to provide public health officials and decision-makers with a robust evidence base. Paramedic data provide a conduit into the community where overdoses occur. Prehospital events and circumstances surrounding opioid-related overdoses provide unique opportunities to collect evidence that can contribute to prevention, harm reduction and health promotion efforts. Using data extracted from the Ottawa Paramedic Service (OPS), this proof-of-concept study demonstrated that paramedic response data were useful in providing near real-time epidemiological information (person, time and place) on the opioid epidemic and in assessing trends and opportunities to develop alert triggers. Between January and June 2017, the OPS responded to an average of four opioid-related calls each week. On average, 0.5 mg of naloxone was administered each time. For the study period, linear trends show a small but insignificant increase in calls (p = 0.18). A higher volume of calls occurred between April 16 and 29, 2017. According to local media reports, this spike in paramedic responses was due to the arrival of high-grade fentanyl in Ottawa. With further validation, paramedic data can potentially provide a novel data source to monitor opioid-related overdoses

Volunteering as a productive ageing activity: the association with fall-related hip fracture in later life

his paper aims to contribute to the literature on the relationship between productive and healthy ageing as two key theoretical concepts in contemporary ageing. Specifically, volunteering as a productive activity in later life has been associated with social and health benefits for older people. Evidence from the literature has generally focused on global outcomes, such as mortality and self-rated health, or on measures of psychological well-being. This study explored whether volunteering is protective of an important adverse health outcome in later life, that of fall-related hip fracture, utilising data from a case control study of 387 participants. The results showed that volunteer activity in older age remained significantly protective of hip fracture risk [OR: 0.61 (0.38–0.99)], independent of social and physical activity, social support and health status, supporting the hypothesis of a relationship between the concepts of productive and healthy ageing. Whilst further studies are clearly needed to establish causality, these results suggest that health benefits of volunteering in later life might be more extensive than previous studies have show