Alcohol container labels might reduce population-level alcohol-related harms, but investigations of their effectiveness have varied in approach and quality. A systematic synthesis is needed to adjust for these differences and to yield evidence to inform policy. Our objectives were to establish the effects of alcohol container labels bearing one or more health warnings, standard drink information, or low-risk drinking guidance on alcohol consumption behaviour, knowledge of label message, and support for labels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is an endemic vaccine-preventable disease that affects the respiratory tract and is caused by the bacterium . Between 1999 and 2004, the adolescent booster dose of pertussis was introduced across Canada. This report describes the epidemiology of pertussis in Canada from 2005 to 2019, the period after adolescent acellular vaccination was recommended.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has conducted enhanced measles surveillance since 1998, the year endemic measles transmission was eliminated in Canada. The objective of this annual national measles surveillance report is to provide an epidemiologic summary of measles activity reported in Canada for 2019 in order to provide evidence to support the continued verification of Canada's measles elimination status.
Methods: Measles surveillance data are housed in the Canadian Measles and Rubella Surveillance System (CMRSS) database.
Background: Measles has been eliminated in Canada since 1998. Every year, the Public Health Agency of Canada presents epidemiologic evidence to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to verify that measles continues to be eliminated in Canada. The objectives of this article are to: provide an epidemiologic summary of measles activity reported in 2018 in Canada, and provide documented evidence to support the continued verification of measles elimination status in Canada.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This systematic review was conducted to inform the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care recommendations on screening for thyroid dysfunction (TD). The review sought to answer key questions on the benefits and harms of screening for TD, patients' values and preferences for screening, and the benefits and harms of treating screen-detected TD.
Methods: This review followed Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care methods, which include the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach.
Respiratory specimens collected from outpatients with influenza-like illness in three Canadian provinces (British Columbia (BC), Alberta and Quebec) participating in a community-based sentinel surveillance network were prospectively screened for enterovirus-D68 (EV-D68) from 1 August to 31 December 2014 and compared to specimens collected from 1 October 2013 to 31 July 2014. Eighteen (1%) of 1,894 specimens were EV-D68-positive: 1/348 (0.3%) collected from October to December 2013 and 11/460 (2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Most evaluations of epidemic thresholds for influenza have been limited to internal criteria of the indicator variable. We aimed to initiate discussion on appropriate methods for evaluation and the value of cross-validation in assessing the performance of a candidate indicator for influenza activity.
Methods: Hospital records of in-patients with a diagnosis of confirmed influenza were extracted from the Canadian Discharge Abstract Database from 2003 to 2011 and aggregated to weekly and regional levels, yielding 7 seasons and 4 regions for evaluation (excluding the 2009 pandemic period).