About the 1997 Health Indicators Database
In 1986, the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Advisory Committee on
Institutional and Medical Services Sub-committee on Health Information
created a working group to identify a set of health indicators intended for
senior officials at the provincial and federal levels. The group gave the
responsibility for creating and distributing the database to the Health
Statistics Division (HSD). A list of approximately 125 indicators were
identified and analyzed leading to the creation of the 56 indicators
contained in the Health Indicators database.
The Health Indicators diskette product contains the entire database of
56 indicators and the software to access the information on a personal computer.
The database can be accessed on the mainframe computer by using
Statistics Canada's CANSIM cross-classified database.
The Health Statistics Division is pleased to present the 1997 edition of a
comprehensive set of health indicators containing the latest information
available from a wide variety of national surveys and administrative
databases, making this package a versatile and powerful tool for the
analysis of Canadian health issues.
The indicators are grouped into four categories that reflect one objective
of modern governments and health professionals; that is, to provide for a
long and active life for the largest possible number of persons:
- Determinants: The indicators under this category cover the wide range of
topics which influence health status, namely: demography, environment,
socio-economic conditions, lifestyle of individuals and the many behavioral
elements of risks to the health of the individual.
- Health Status: These indicators measure the levels of health and
well-being, perceived or diagnosed, in the population.
- Resources: The indicators under this category reflect the multiple array
of means developed and allocated to restore and maintain the health of
individuals. The resources are of four types: Human, Physical, Financial,
and Organizational.
- Utilization: These indicators cover the extent of health resources and
services used by the population to influence positively their health.
As this indicator program evolves over time, it should prove useful in
establishing health goals for the population and offer objective measures of
their success. Health Statistics Division would like to take this
opportunity to thank the provincial/territorial health administrations,
Health Canada and other government agencies for their cooperation and
support in this endeavour.
HIGHLIGHTS 82-221-XDE HEALTH INDICATORS
What's new with the product
- Thirty of fifty six indicators updated for this edition.
- More text and notes have been added for the user's convenience.
Highlights, the list of indicators and the outline of the data base have
all been included.
- Data for some tables contain suppressions for values less than three in
line with the policy on confidentiality and sensitive information.
- Education indicators now contain 1994/95 data for university and college
enrollments. Community College Graduates are for 1993/94.
- The 1994/95 National Population Health Survey has again been used for the
indicators on job satisfaction and perceived health status.
- Health Expenditures indicators have been completely revised to include
the time series from 1975 to 1994.
- Total fertility rate, age specific fertility, age standardized mortality
and other indicators from the vital statistics database have all been
updated to 1994.
- Notifiable diseases and sexually transmitted diseases are for the year
1995.
What's new with the Data
- Approved beds in institutions shows the impact of health care reform in
the reduction of hospital beds and the increase in residential care
facilities beds.
- Age standardized mortality shows cancer leading heart disease, 188 versus
184 per 100,000 population.
- Hospitalizations are continuing to decrease reflecting the ongoing changes
in the way care is delivered.
- Enrollments in the caring professions in community colleges are 35, 137
for 1994/95, while graduates are 10, 488 (93/94). The bulk of
enrollments (62%) and graduates (58.7 %)are in nursing.
- Full time enrollments in universities in 1994/95 are 100, 947 and
graduates are 23, 157. Medicine and nursing are by far the most popular
programs.
- Health Expenditures decreased to 9.7 % of the Gross Domestic Product in
1994, from 10.1 per cent in 1993. Canada is allocating a similar amount
to health as France (9.8%) and Switzerland (9.9%)
- Public health expenditures account for 66.3% of national health
expenditures while private sector expenditures account for 28.2 %.
- Public health expenditures are dominated by hospital and physician
expenditures - 46.5% and 19.6 % of the public sector total.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The original set of indicators was outlined by the members of two working
groups reporting to the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Advisory Committee on
Institutional and Medical Services through the former Sub-Committee on
Health Information:
Working Group on Key Indicators Working Group on Health Status
Information
L. de G. Fournier, Chairman, HSD Nick Haazen, Chairman, B.C.
Jerry Vila, MOH, Ontario Lily Eastridge, MOH, Ontario
Michel Blondeau, MSSS, Québec Vivien Lai, HMC, Alberta
Michel Trahan, HWC Owen Adams, HSD
Claude Strohmenger, HWC Claude Strohmenger, HWC
Owen Adams, HSD Michel Trahan, HWC
The overall responsibility for planning and coordinating the content of
Health Indicators rested with the Product Development Section of Health
Statistics Division. The concept and design of the original data
dissemination formats and database was accomplished by John Menic. The
revisions and updates were coordinated by Deirdre Gillieson. Numerous staff
members throughout Statistics Canada contributed towards the preparation of
the tables and graphs:
Health Canada
Communicable
Diseases: Mary Jane Garnett
Statistics Canada
Labour: Horst Stiebert Labour Force Survey: Marc Levesque
Education: Jim Donnelly Household Surveys: Edith Lamoureux
HSD: Deirdre Gillieson Dissemination Division: Patrick Conway
GarryMacDonald
Francine Ladouceur
Michel Gunville
Michael Gagnon
To all these persons, and many others, we at Health Statistics Division
say thank you. Your cooperation and assistance are greatly appreciated.
For more information about the Health Indicators Database
Contact your local Data Liberation Initiative Contact. For the University of
Western Ontario, this is Vincent Gray, the
Data Resources Librarian.
HTML file prepared at the Social Science Computing Laboratory, University
of Western Ontario, by S. Vincent Gray, Data Resources Librarian,
from the README.TXT file supplied with the Health Indicators
Database, dated 1997-08-28.
(Modified 1998-03-26; svg)