Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Understanding Attitudes To Refugees And Immigrants In Australia, Winnifred Louis

Migration and Ethnic Relations Colloquium Series

No abstract provided.

Why Origins Matter: Central Americans In Canada, Alan B. Simmons

Migration and Ethnic Relations Colloquium Series

No abstract provided.

Doing Collaborative Community Based Research: On The Ground In Kingston, Audrey Kobayashi

Migration and Ethnic Relations Colloquium Series

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Physical Inactivity And Family Life Course Stage, Margo J. Hilbrecht, Suzy L. Wong, Judith D. Toms, Mary E. Thompson

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Physical inactivity is a well-documented risk factor for numerous chronic diseases and a major public health problem in Canada. Since social-ecological models suggest that behaviour is influenced by the person as well as the social and physical environment, it is important to be sensitive to other factors when examining physical activity participation. The purpose of this study was to explore the associations between physical inactivity, marital status and family stage for men and women in Canada.

The study was based on data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, Cycle 2.1, for adults aged 18-64 living with a spouse or partner …

Public Policy, Gender, Marriage, And Self-Rated Health, Sean Clouston, Amélie Quesnel-Vallée

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Married people live longer than those who remain single both in Canada and the USA, with men showing the most gain from marriage. The benefit to marriage has been exlpicated in four different ways: marital benefits, with protective benefits going mostly to men; negative selection, with sicker individuals seeking healthcare from their spouses in a health-poor policy environment; clean-up for marriage, whereby mostly male risky behaviors are left behind prior to marriage; and positive selection, suggesting instead that the marital selection process is tied to health indicators evident in social circumstances. The importance of social policy to these realms is …

Projecting Family Support Needed To Assist Older Canadian Living In The Community, 2006-2031, Janice M. Keefe, Yann Décarie, Patrick Charbonneau, Jacques Légaré

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Canadian policy makers are increasingly interested in planning for the inevitable increase in home care services that will be fuelled by population aging and community care policy. Our goal is to advance understanding of the patterns and predictors of disability and support among the population aged 65+ and use this information to project future health human resources. Using the 2002 General Social Survey, logistic regressions estimated the probability of an individual with specific characteristics of having a specific level of disability and those with a long term health problems using one of three types of support networks (formal, informal, or …

The Evolution Of Health Outcomes From Childhood To Adolescence, Paul Contoyannis, Jinhu Li

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

NOTE: The peer-reviewed version of this paper is available online from the Journal of Health Economics at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2010.10.007
The authors' manuscript of it is available as the additional file listed below.

Using data from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY), this study examines how and why health outcomes exhibit persistence during the period from childhood to adolescence. We examine the distribution of health outcomes and health transitions using descriptive analysis and explore the determinants of these distributions by estimating the contributions of family SES, unobserved heterogeneity and state dependence and also allowing for heterogeneity of state …

Poster Introductions Iii--The Lifecourse Of Esophageal Cancer Patients Traced By Means Of The Lifegrid, Ann Novogradec

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Background: The absence of prospective longitudinal studies for certain health outcomes creates the need to collect accurate information retrospectively. In an attempt to minimize recall bias and to better understand the deeper rooted issues involved in the risk factors for esophageal cancer, the adoption of the lifegrid accompanied by supplementary tools was implemented. The objective was to provide a more comprehensive and context-sensitive perspective to the study of the living and working environments of esophageal cancer patients across the lifecourse.

Methods: A sample of 46 esophageal cancer patients were recruited from participating London and Toronto hospitals. This study involved the …

Poster Introductions Iii--Predicting Vulnerability: Pandemic H1n1/09 And Canada’S First Nations, Nicholas Spence, Jerry White

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

The World Health Organization has estimated that as many as 2 billion or between 15 and 45 percent of the population globally will be infected by pandemic H1N1/09. Certain subgroups have been categorized as high risk given the clinical evidence to date. One of these subgroups is Indigenous populations as they experience poor socioeconomic conditions. There is, however, great variability in socioeconomic conditions across First Nations communities in Canada. Rooted in the social determinants of health, we have developed a model to predict vulnerability and institute relevant measures to mitigate the effects of pandemic H1N1/09 in First Nations communities. The …

Poster Introductions Iii--Aging With Long-Term Physical Impairment: The Significance Of Social Support, Rebecca Casey, Sharon Dale Stone

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

As the population ages more people are reaching old age having lived with a long-term physical impairment. This vulnerable group of people has specific needs that are often different from those of someone who reaches old age without a pre-existing physical impairment. This paper focuses on the significance of social support in ameliorating the aging experience when living with long-term physical impairment. It is based on a qualitative study of the aging experiences of eight men and women living in Ontario, Canada who were between the ages of 50 and 68 and had lived with their physical impairment for more …

Poster Introductions Iii--Antipsychotic Utilization In British Columbia From 1997 To 2006, Joseph H. Puyat, Wayne Jones, Elliot M. Goldner

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

This study examined the prevalent use of antipsychotic medication in British Columbia from 1997 to 2006 among individuals aged 20 and above. Utilization data were obtained from BC’s PharmaNet system – a provincially maintained database that contains prescription dispensation records and demographic information for individuals residing in BC. Using the American Hospital Formulary Service (AHFS) Pharmacologic-Therapeutic Classification, claim records for Antipsychotics, Atypical Antipsychotics, Butyrophenones, Phenotiazines, Thioxanthenes, and Miscellaneous Antipsychotics were identified in the PharmaNet dataset. Individuals who filled at least 1 antipsychotic prescription in a given year were counted as prevalent users. Results were examined across gender and several age …

Breastfeeding Practices Of Immigrant Mothers In Canada: The Role Of Immigration Status, Length Of Residence, And Ethnic Minority, Gebremariam Woldemicael

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Previous studies have demonstrated a strong relationship between breastfeeding practices and immigration status, length of residence, and ethnic minority. However, it remains unclear to what extent differences in these factors can be explained by cultural influences or other socio-demographic factors. Using the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) data, this study investigates whether immigration status, year of residence, and visible minority status are associated with initiation and duration of exclusive breastfeeding in the context of socio-demographic factors. The findings show that while the relationship between breastfeeding and immigration process is complex, some clear, broad patterns exist that may have important …

Poverty, Neighbourhood Characteristics And Trajectories Of Maternal Depression, Mai Thanh Tu, Mark Daniel, Louise Séguin, Yan Kestens

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Background: Income, education, being an immigrant and residential neighbourhood characteristics are linked to depressive symptoms. To our knowledge, no longitudinal study has examined the joint influence of demographic and neighbourhood characteristics on maternal depressive symptoms.

Objective: To examine the influence of demographic and neighbourhood characteristics on trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms from child age 1.5 to 7 years, in Québec, Canada. METHODS: 1611 mothers from the Québec Longitudinal Study on Child Development, seen regularly since child birth (1998). Maternal depressive symptoms (CES-D), income, and residential neighbourhood characteristics (neighbourhood poverty, unemployment and quality of nearest park) were measured for mothers at …

Poster Introductions Ii--Learning Violence Young, Lihui Zhang

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Two geographically and culturally connected nations, the United States and Canada, have starkly contrasting violent crime rates. Comparable surveys show that American teenagers on average are three times as likely to engage in fights as their Canadian peers and that this cross-country violence gap exists even among children as young as 4-5 years old. Conventional arguments believed to account for this sharp contrast in violence rates prove to have limited explanatory power. The US violence premium remains a puzzle. Using rich information provided by large-scale individual level longitudinal survey data, this study performs a Canada-US comparative analysis with a special …

Poster Introductions Ii--Children’S Health Prior To School Entry And Reading Skills In The First Year Of Primary School: Identifying Protective Factors, Karine Tétreault, Hélène Desrosiers, Jean-François Cardin

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Background: Reading skills at school entry are one of the main determinants of future academic performance.1 Therefore, less than optimal health during the first years of life can affect the capacity for learning,2 which in turn can have an impact on health and social adjustment throughout life. The main goal of this analysis was to examine the impact of young children’s health trajectories on their reading skills in the first year of primary school (Grade 1), as assessed by their teachers.

Methods: The analysis was based on data collected annually during the first eight years of the Québec Longitudinal Study …

Poster Introductions Ii--The Children’S Health And Activity Modification Program (C.H.A.M.P.): Exploring The Impact Of A 4-Week Lifestyle Intervention On Obese Children And Their Families, Erin S. Pearson, Shauna M. Burke, Jennifer D. Irwin

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

C.H.A.M.P., a 4-week day camp for obese children aged 8-14, was held during August 2008. The program included daily physical activity, dietary, and behavioural modification for children, and similarly-themed educational sessions for family members on weekends. The purpose of the present study was to explore the experiences of children and family members who participated in C.H.A.M.P.. Methods: This qualitative study enlisted a trained facilitator to moderate five focus groups immediately following the intervention. Children (n = 12) were allocated to 1 of 2 groups; parents (n = 17) were allocated to 1 of 3 groups. Following a semi-structured interview guide, …

Understanding Requirements And Unmet Needs For Accommodations For Non-Senior Adults With Disabilities Through A Social-Cultural Lens, Aron Spector

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

This paper will provide an overview of how requirements and unmet needs for disability-related aids, devices and human supports changed between 2001 and 2006 using results from Statistics Canada’s Participation and Activity Limitations Surveys. It will illustrate the usefulness of applying a social/cultural model of disability in developing our understanding as to why these changes have taken place. In particular it will show strong relationships between:

· Advances in the inclusion of people with disabilities and related changes in both requirements and unmet need. For example, the period saw tightening of the labour market and a commensurate shift of a …

The ‘Trendiness’ Of Sleep: An Empirical Investigation Into The Cyclical Nature Of Sleep Time, Pierre Brochu, Catherine Deri-Armstrong, Louis-Philippe Morin

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Using Canadian time use data, we exploit exogenous variation in local unemployment rates to investigate the cyclical nature of sleep time and show that for both men and women, sleep time decreases when the economy is doing relatively better. Our results suggest that in a recession Canadians sleep an average of 2 hours and 34 minutes more per week, or 22 minutes more per day. Given the importance of even small changes in sleep time on measures of cognitive functioning such as reaction time and concentration, our findings may help explain the countercyclical nature of mortality. Further, as we find …

Health Over The Life Course: Research And Policy Roundtable Discussion, Valérie Émond

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

At this roundtable discussion, researchers and policy makers talked broadly about the most important questions that had been answered by recent empirical research and which questions remained to be answered. They were asked to consider research and policy related to “Population aging and pressure points in a life course framework: disability and long term care.”

Valérie Émond is an scientific expert at the Quebec Public Health Institute. Over the past 10 years, she has worked at developing chronic disease surveillance for the province of Quebec using administrative data. After developing the model for diabetes surveillance, she is currently working on …

Poster Introductions I--Arduous Access: Does Ses Affect Access To Primary Health Care In Quebec?, Tania M. Jenkins

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

A review of the extant literature indicates that there is an important dearth of research concerning access to primary care in Quebec specifically, given the province’s particularly troublesome number of people without family doctors. Furthermore, while many studies concentrate on the effect of socioeconomic on utilisation rates of services, few studies have considered its impact on the likelihood of having a regular source of care. As such, in order to address some of these gaps in the extant literature, this paper will ask whether there is a positive relationship between SES and the likelihood of having a family physician amongst …

Poster Introductions I--Socioeconomic Inequalities In Health And The Welfare State: A Research Synthesis, Sarah Brennenstuhl, Peggy Mcdonough, Amélie Quesnel-Vallée

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Research on the social determinants of health and health inequalities has drawn increasingly from the comparative social policy literature. Much of this research relies on one welfare regime typology, but there is a need to systematically review the efficacy of this and alternative approaches if we are to advance research in this area and provide state-of-the-art information to policy makers. Our paper presents the findings of a critical review of the public health literature on socioeconomic inequalities in health and the welfare state. In addition to synthesizing existing research, we identify knowledge gaps, and address the research and policy implications …

Poster Introductions I--Productivity Losses Of Chronic Diseases Among Canadian Labour Force From 1994 To 2005: Estimate From The Nationally Representative Samples, Farah Farahati

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Objective: This study estimates the productivity losses from different chronic disorders (e.g., heart conditions, diabetes, cancer) and some measures of risk factors (smoking, drinking) in two period of time, 1994 and 2005, among Canadian labour force.

Methods: Using the data from the National Population Health Survey 1994 and Canadian Community Health Survey2005, the probability of having disability days, number of disability days, and income losses have been estimated and compared in years 1994 and 2005. In each year, a two-part model is used to estimate the impact of DM and other chronic disorders on labour market outcomes. Part one uses …

Welfare Regimes And Social Inequalities In Health Dynamics: A Comparative Analysis Of Panel Data From Britain, Denmark, Germany And The Us, Peggy Mcdonough, Diana Worts, Amanda Sacker

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Objective: To describe average national trajectories of self-rated health over a 7-year period, identify social determinants of cross-sectional and longitudinal health; and compare cross-national patterns.

Design: Prospective nationally representative household panel studies (the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics; British Household Panel Survey; the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey; the Danish panel from the European Community Household Panel Survey).

Setting: The US, Britain, Germany and Denmark

Participants: Household heads and their partners of working age throughout follow-up (US: 4855; Britain: 4365; Germany: 4694; Denmark: 3252).

Main Outcome Measure: Repeated measures of self-rated health (1995 – 2001). Social indicators include education, occupational …

Socioeconomic History And Preventable Disease: A Comparative Analysis Of Fundamental Cause Theory, Andrea Wilson, Amir Erfani

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Fundamental cause theory suggests that because persons of higher socioeconomic status have a range of resources that benefit health, they hold an advantage in warding off whatever particular threats to health exist at a given time. Therefore as risk factors that stratify health are eliminated, socioeconomic disparities in health remain. Accordingly, SES should be more strongly associated with diseases that are more preventable than with less preventable diseases, and SES should have a stronger relationship to health in countries where high economic inequality and no universal health insurance leads to greater competition for resources. Using longitudinal data from Canada (National …

Unequal Health, Health Care Needs And Ses Over The Life Course: The Role Of Health Insurance In A National Health System, Emilie Renahy, Amélie Quesnel-Vallée

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

The association between health and income has been extensively described in the literature. However, accounts of the time dynamics of this relationship are scant, as are studies examining the modifying effect of public policies on this relationship, measured here through health insurance (HI). We used the National Population Health Survey, a cohort study of the general Canadian population spanning almost 10 years, from 1996 to 2004. We considered middle-aged participants (25-56, n=6116) by groups of 10 years.

Structural equation models were employed to assess the impact of HI on the pathway between socioeconomic status, health needs and health status. Regarding …

Keynote Address: Health Over The Life Course, Sylvain Segard

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Sylvain Segard is a public policy manager with over 20 years of experience at the provincial, federal, and international levels in such diverse fields as economic and regional development, social policy, environment and sustainable development, maritime safety, corporate and strategic planning, and federal budget making. Mr. Segard is the Director General of the Center for Health Promotion with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). He oversees a number of programs to promote healthy living among Canadians in general as well as initiatives targeted at reducing health risks among vulnerable populations. Prior to joining PHAC, Mr. Segard was Director General, …

Welcome And Opening Remarks, Roderic Beaujot

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Roderic Beaujot is Professor of Sociology at the University of Western Ontario, Academic Director of the UWO Research Data Centre, and leader the SSHRC Strategic Knowledge Cluster on Population Change and Lifecourse. He holds a PhD from University of Alberta (1975). For 1974-76 he was employed with the Demography Division at Statistics Canada, and has been at University of Western Ontario since 1976. His most noteworthy publications are Population Change in Canada (Oxford University Press, 2004, second edition with Don Kerr) and Earning and Caring in Canadian Families (Broadview, 2000). Most recently, he was the lead author of “Population change …

Welcome And Opening Remarks, Raymond Currie

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Raymond F. Currie is the Executive Director of the Canadian Research Data Centre Network (2002-2010). He is a retired professor of Sociology and Dean Emeritus at the University of Manitoba, were he was Dean of Arts (1991-1999). He served on the Data Liberation Initiative External Advisory Committee and Board of Management. His academic publications were in the area of urban sociology, sociology of religion and methodology. He was co-editor of “Fragile Truths; 25 Years of Sociology and Anthropology in Canada”. He has been invited to 15 Canadian universities to lecture on academic leadership and/or to evaluate undergraduate and graduate academic …

Statistics Canada Aboriginal Peoples Survey, Nicholas Spence

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Nicholas Spence holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Western Ontario. He has worked in Ottawa for the federal government, and he is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Ontario, affiliated with the department of sociology and the department of health sciences. Nicholas is also Associate Director of the Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium (International), housed at the University of Western Ontario. His research expertise includes inequality/stratification, health, education/labor markets, and statistics and quantitative research methods.

Canadian Health Measures Survey, Colleen Bolger

Health over the Life Course Conference (2009)

Colleen Bolger is an analyst at Statistics Canada who has worked on developing data products and services for researchers for over 20 years. Currently working on the first data releases for the Canadian Health Measures Survey that integrates physical measurements and scientific data into population health information sources, she has worked on the development of the National Population Health Survey, integrated socio-economic journals such as Perspectives on Labour and Income and provided remote data services to international scholars for OECD publications. As a former senior scientific and economic editor at Statistics Canada, she guided many research papers and population studies …