Groundbreaking national health survey starting soon

In the next few days, a groundbreaking national health survey is planned to be starting in British Columbia.

The survey is initiated to discover what kinds of toxic chemicals are present in Canadians' bodies, as well as examining other health issues such as obesity and disease other diseases.
Nearly 700 residents in the province will be surveyed.

By the end of 2008, more than 5,000 Canadians between the ages of 6 and 79 will have been tested.
Participants must agree to a series of physical exams, fitness testing and blood and urine tests. They'll also be required to wear an activity monitor for seven days.

According to Jeanine Bustros, the director of the physical health measures division of Statistics Canada, the survey could have major significance for health policy, depending on the findings.

"This survey will allow us, for the first time, to have a benchmark," she said.

"To be able to measure: Are we getting better? Are we getting worse?, in terms of the levels of contaminants in the Canadian population."

StatsCan will put the findings together for Health Canada and Canada's Public Health Agency. The results will become the first-ever comprehensive health study that directly measures things like obesity, lung function, chronic disease and levels of toxic chemicals in the blood.

Individual health results will be , but will be provided to participants who request them, within weeks of testing.

Only Canadians who are contacted by Statistics Canada are eligible to participate.
The results of the survey are confidential and protected by privacy laws, but will be given to participants within weeks after testing on request.

Source: CBC News

Growing trend Multiple Births in Canada

There is a growing trend of multiple births in the western world.

According to Multiple Births Canada, between 1974 and 1990 the incidence of twins rose 35 percent, triplets climbed 300 percent and quadruplets skyrocketed 400 percent.

In the last five years alone, according to Statistics Canada, the incidence of triplets has increased 14 percent across the country.

"Primarily it's because of reproductive technology," said Dr. Bill Mundle, medical director of the Windsor Regional Hospital maternal fetal medicine department.

"People who are having trouble getting pregnant will often go through treatment, though sometimes they get more than what they bargained for."

This year, on January 7th in Vancouver, Canada's first set of sextuplets were born, eclipsing the country's famed Dionne quintuplets, born May 28th, 1934.
Not all the sextuplets survived, however.

Multiple-birth children are often born prematurely, which is why the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority will soon limit the number of multiple births which reproductive-technology doctors in the United Kingdom can produce.

Heather McAuley, president of the Parents of Multiple Births Association Windsor Essex County, said another reason more twins and triplets are being born is because the average age of women having their first children is rising.
Older women produce multiple-birth children more often than younger women.

Source: Times Colonist

Statistics Canada underestimates our health care system, report says

Canadians are likely getting more value from the health care system than Statistics Canada's figures suggest, says an Ottawa-based think tank in a report criticizing the agency for shoddy estimates.

In a report to be released today and obtained by The Canadian Press, the Centre for the Study of Living Standards says Statistics Canada "may seriously underestimate" the health care system's true economic effectiveness.

It also says the agency "should devote more effort to develop better estimates of output and productivity."

"The true contribution of the health-care sector to the well-being of the Canadian population ... is not being captured in current estimates of health-care output and productivity," the report says.

Statistics Canada estimates productivity in the health care and social assistance industry fell 0.69 per cent per year from 1987-2006, the report says.

The report says that's in opposition to a 1.14 per cent increase in overall productivity in Canada during the same 20-year period.

"It is widely recognized, including by Statistics Canada officials, that these numbers may seriously underestimate the true contribution of the health-care sector to real output, and more importantly to the economic well-being of Canadians," it says.

Reached at his in-laws' house in Toronto, Andrew Sharpe, one of the authors of the report and the executive director of the centre, said the statistics agency's measurement system is flawed.

"It's an input-based measure that doesn't give you a true measure of the output of the sector," he said.

"So, there's a massive downward biased output in the health care sector in the official numbers."

The report notes several European countries and the United States are starting to measure actual output of their health care systems, and suggests Canada adopt this framework.

It suggests Statistics Canada's measurements might not fully account for improvements in the quality of health care. It notes life expectancy in Canada rose by 5.3 years from 1979 to 2004.

There will be "very different" policy implications depending on whether increased health spending stems from higher prices or improving quality, the report says.

Times&Transcript