Facilitators and barriers of sociodemographic data collection in Canadian health care settings: a multisite case study evaluation.

Background: Despite growing awareness of the importance of social determinants of health, research remains limited about the implementation of sociodemographic data collection in Canadian health care settings. Little is known about the salient contextual factors that enable or hinder collection and use of social information to improve quality of care in clinical settings. This study examines the perceptions and experiences of managers and care providers to better understand how to support organizational efforts to collect and use sociodemographic data to provide equity-oriented care.

Restaurant inspection frequency: The RestoFreq Study.

Objectives: Foodborne illness is an important contributor to morbidity and health system costs in Canada. Using number of critical hazards as a proxy for food safety, we sought to better understand how to improve food safety in restaurants. We compared the current standard of annual inspections to twice-yearly inspections among restaurants "at risk" for food safety infractions.

Planning Adolescent Mental Health Promotion Programming in Saskatoon.

Background: We assessed associations between key demographic risk factors and the outcome of depressed mood in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to inform the planning and implementation of mental health promotion programming in schools.

Methods: In the 2008/2009 school year, 3958 students from grades 5 through 8 from 76 elementary schools completed questions regarding depressed mood on the Student Health Survey administered by the Saskatoon Health Region. The demographic risk factors for depressed mood considered in this study included age, sex, cultural status, and neighborhood income, as well as the role of school and age cohorts or grades within schools.

An analytic approach for describing and prioritizing health inequalities at the local level in Canada: a descriptive study.

Background: We present the health inequalities analytic approach used by the Saskatoon Health Region to examine health equity. Our aim was to develop a method that will enable health regions to prioritize action on health inequalities.

Methods: Data from admissions to hospital, physician billing, reportable diseases, vital statistics and childhood immunizations in the city of Saskatoon were analyzed for the years ranging from 1995 to 2011.

Coverage for the entire population: tackling immunization rates and disparities in Saskatoon Health Region.

Objective: Our objective was to determine the effectiveness of an intervention, the Immunization Reminders Project, in terms of a) improving vaccination coverage rates for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) among 2-year-olds and b) ameliorating geographical disparities in early childhood immunization coverage.

Target Population: All 14-month-old and 20-month-old children in Saskatoon Health Region who were overdue for their immunizations.

Setting: Saskatoon Health Region (SHR).

Understanding the impact of the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program: a quantitative evaluation.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess whether high exposure to the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program (CPNP) improved 1) the personal health practices, such as smoking and breastfeeding, of participants and 2) birth outcomes, such as low birth weight and preterm birth.

Intervention: The CPNP is a population-level health intervention that aims to contribute to improved health outcomes for pregnant women and their newborn children facing conditions of risk. The program, which is jointly managed by the federal and provincial governments, serves more than 45,000 Canadian women annually.

Lived experience of economic and political trends related to globalization.

Objective: A multi-method case study examined how the economic and political processes of globalization have influenced the determinants of health among low-income children in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. This paper presents the results from the qualitative interview component of the case study. The purpose of the interviews was to uncover the lived experience of low-income families and their children in Saskatoon with regards to political and economic trends related to globalization, an important addition to the usual globalization and health research that relies primarily on cross-country regressions in which the personal impacts remain hidden.