Provincial implementation supports for socio-demographic data collection during COVID-19 in Ontario's public health system.

Setting: The Ontario government implemented a regulatory change to mandate the collection of socio-demographic (SD) data for individuals who tested positive for COVID-19. This change was informed by evidence of COVID-19's disproportionate impact on marginalized communities and calls for broader collection of SD data. Given the scarcity of similar efforts, there is a significant knowledge gap around implementing standardized SD data collection in public health settings.

Surveillance of persons-who tested negative for COVID-19 in Ontario, January 22-February 22, 2020.

As of January 22, 2020, "disease caused by a novel coronavirus" became a reportable disease of public health significance in Ontario. Public health units were provided with guidance on the entry of patients tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus causing 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), into the provincial public health information system. Between January 22 and February 22, 2020, there were 359 individuals who had a negative test result recorded and three confirmed cases of COVID-19.

All together now: aggregating multiple records to develop a person-based dataset to integrate and enhance infectious disease surveillance in Ontario, Canada.

Setting: Syndemics occur when two or more health conditions interact to increase morbidity and mortality and are exacerbated by social, economic, environmental, and political factors. Routine provincial surveillance in Ontario assesses and reports on the epidemiology of single infectious diseases separately. Therefore, we aimed to develop a method that allows disease overlaps to be examined routinely as a path to better understanding and addressing syndemics in Ontario.

Getting a grippe on severity: a retrospective comparison of influenza-related hospitalizations and deaths captured in reportable disease and administrative data sources in Ontario, Canada.

Background: Since 2009, in Ontario, reportable disease surveillance data has been used for timely in-season estimates of influenza severity (i.e., hospitalizations and deaths).

The need for integrated public health surveillance to address sexually transmitted and blood-borne syndemics.

A national approach to addressing sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBIs) was recently articulated in the Public Health Agency of Canada's new . This Framework promotes an integrated approach, with a focus on the key populations that are affected by overlapping epidemics (i.e.

Relation between opioid-related harms and socioeconomic inequalities in Ontario: a population-based descriptive study.

Background: Negative health outcomes associated with the use of both prescribed and nonprescribed opioids are increasingly prevalent. We examined long-term trends in opioid-related harms in Ontario across a set of 6 indicators and the relation between harms and neighbourhood income in 2016.

Methods: We examined rates of neonatal abstinence syndrome, opioid poisoning (fatal and nonfatal) and nonpoisoning opioid-related events from 2003 to 2016 in Ontario using population-based health administrative databases.

Characterizing the health and information-seeking behaviours of Ontarians in response to the Zika virus outbreak.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to describe the impact of the 2016 Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak on the health-seeking and information-seeking behaviours of Ontarians.

Methods: A timeline that included events and announcements from health agencies was constructed to describe the unfolding of the ZIKV outbreak between January 1 and September 30, 2016. In order to gain an understanding of the information and health-seeking behaviours of Ontarians, data from the following sources were collected and analyzed descriptively over time in 1-week intervals: trends in web searches, calls to a provincial telemedicine advice line, test submissions to the provincial laboratory and Zika-related media coverage.

Public health surveillance for the Toronto 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games.

Background: Public health surveillance for previous Olympic and Paralympic Games have been described in the literature, but surveillance for regional, multisport events on a smaller scale have rarely been explored.

Objective: To describe the public health surveillance planning, implementation, results, and lessons learned from the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Intervention: Public health surveillance planning for the Games began two years in advance and involved local, provincial and federal partners, primarily focusing on infectious disease.

Zika Virus in Ontario: Evaluating a Rapid Risk Assessment Tool for Emerging Infectious Disease Threats.

To determine the Ontario-specific risk of local and travel-related Zika virus transmission in the context of a public health emergency of international concern, Public Health Ontario (PHO) completed a rapid risk assessment (RRA) on January 29, 2016, using a newly developed RRA guidance tool. The RRA concluded that risk of local mosquito-borne transmission was low, with a high risk of imported cases through travel. The RRA was updated 3 times based on predetermined triggers.

Assessing health impacts of the December 2013 Ice storm in Ontario, Canada.

Background: Ice, or freezing rain storms have the potential to affect human health and disrupt normal functioning of a community. The purpose of this study was to assess acute health impacts of an ice storm that occurred in December 2013 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Methods: Data on emergency department visits were obtained from the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System.

The inclusion of women in studies of occupational cancer: a review of the epidemiologic literature from 1991-2009.

Introduction: Since the early 1990s, researchers have been concerned with the low rate at which women are included in epidemiologic studies of occupational cancer. A previous evaluation determined that one-third of articles published between 1970 and 1990 included women.

Methods: To assess whether there has been an improvement in recent years, papers on occupational cancer between 1991 and 2009 were reviewed in fifteen journals.

Recent trends in published occupational cancer epidemiology research: results from a comprehensive review of the literature.

Objective: To assess trends in occupational cancer epidemiology research through a literature review of occupational health and epidemiology journals.

Methods: Fifteen journals were reviewed from 1991 to 2009, and characteristics of articles that assessed the risk of cancer associated with an occupation, industry, or occupational exposure, were incorporated into a database.

Results: The number of occupational cancer epidemiology articles published annually declined in recent years (2003 onwards) in the journals reviewed.

Exposures to multiple pesticides and the risk of Hodgkin lymphoma in Canadian men.

Purpose: To determine the risk of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) associated with exposures to multiple pesticides grouped by various classes, including carcinogenic classifications.

Methods: Data collected in the Cross-Canada Study of Pesticides and Health, a population-based incident case-control study in six provinces conducted between 1991 and 1994, were analyzed using unconditional logistic regression. Cases (n = 316) were identified through provincial cancer registries and hospital records.

Pesticide use, immunologic conditions, and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Canadian men in six provinces.

Pesticide exposures and immune suppression have been independently associated with the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), but their joint effect has not been well explored. Data from a case-control study of men from six Canadian provinces were used to evaluate the potential effect modification of asthma, allergies, or asthma and allergies and hay fever combined on NHL risk from use of: (i) any pesticide; (ii) any organochlorine insecticide; (iii) any organophosphate insecticide; (iv) any phenoxy herbicide; (v) selected individual pesticides [1,1'-(2,2,2-trichloroethylidene)bis[4-chlorobenzene]; 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl) ethane (DDT), malathion, (4-chloro-2-methylphenoxy)acetic acid (MCPA), mecoprop, and (2,4-dichlorophenoxy)acetic acid (2,4-D); and (vi) from the number of potentially carcinogenic pesticides. Incident NHL cases (n = 513) diagnosed between 1991 and 1994 were recruited from provincial cancer registries and hospitalization records and compared to 1,506 controls.

Priority issues in occupational cancer research: Ontario stakeholder perspectives.

Introduction: Workers are potentially exposed to known and suspected carcinogens in the workplace, many of which have not been fully evaluated. Despite persistent need, research on occupational cancer appears to have declined in recent decades. The formation of the Occupational Cancer Research Centre (OCRC) is an effort to counter this downward trend in Ontario.

Exposure to multiple pesticides and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in men from six Canadian provinces.

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) has been linked to several agricultural exposures, including some commonly used pesticides. Although there is a significant body of literature examining the effects of exposure to individual pesticides on NHL, the impact of exposure to multiple pesticides or specific pesticide combinations has not been explored in depth. Data from a six-province Canadian case-control study conducted between 1991 and 1994 were analyzed to investigate the relationship between NHL, the total number of pesticides used and some common pesticide combinations.

"I don't think this is theoretical; this is our lives": how erasure impacts health care for transgender people.

For people who are transgender, transsexual, or transitioned (trans), access to primary, emergency, and transition-related health care is often problematic. Results from Phase I of the Trans PULSE Project, a community-based research project in Ontario, Canada, are presented. Based on qualitative data from focus groups with 85 trans community members, a theoretical framework describing how erasure functions to impact experiences interacting with the health care system was developed.

Significance of cytogenetic findings for the clinical outcome in patients with T-cell lymphoma of angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy type.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the significance of cytogenetic findings for the clinical outcome of patients with Angioimmunoblastic Lymphadenopathy (AILD)-Type T-cell lymphoma.

Materials And Methods: In a retrospective analysis, the cytogenetic findings of 50 patients with AILD-type T-cell lymphoma were correlated with the frequency of spontaneous and therapy-induced remissions and with survival using the statistical methods of Kaplan and Meier and the model of Cox for multivariate analysis. Treatment was not uniform because the patients were treated in different hospitals during a period of 8 years and because a standard therapy has not yet been established.