The influence of community well-being on mortality among Registered First Nations people.

Background: Living in a community with lower socioeconomic status is associated with higher mortality. However, few studies have examined associations between community socioeconomic characteristics and mortality among the First Nations population.

Data And Methods: The 1991-to-2006 Census Mortality and Cancer Cohort follow-up, which tracked a 15% sample of Canadians aged 25 or older, included 57,300 respondents who self-identified as Registered First Nations people or Indian band members.

Sexual risk and healthcare seeking behaviour in young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in North Queensland.

Unlabelled: Background Compared with non-Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have higher rates of sexually transmissible infections (STI). The identification of the sexual risk and healthcare seeking behaviours of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in a regional Australian setting was sought.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 155 young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (16-24 years) in Townsville was conducted.

Unintentional injury hospitalizations and socio-economic status in areas with a high percentage of First Nations identity residents.

Background: Few national studies of hospitalizations due to injuries among the First Nations population have been conducted.

Data And Methods: Based on 2004/2005 to 2009/2010 data from the Discharge Abstract Database, this study examines associations between unintentional injury hospitalizations, socio-economic status and location relative to an urban core in Dissemination Areas (DAs) with a high percentage of First Nations identity residents versus a low percentage of Aboriginal identity residents.

Results: Unintentional injury hospitalization rates were higher in the less affluent and the most remote DAs.

Mortality among children and youth in high-percentage First Nations identity areas, 2000-2002 and 2005-2007.

Introduction: Many First Nations children live in communities that face diverse social and health challenges compared with their non-Aboriginal peers, including some of the most socio-economically challenging situations in Canada. These differences can be seen in broad indicators of the social determinants of health. Studies of mortality in Aboriginal populations across Canada are often restricted by the lack of Aboriginal identifiers on national death records.

The contribution of neighbourhood material and social deprivation to survival: a 22-year follow-up of more than 500,000 Canadians.

Background: We examined the incremental influence on survival of neighbourhood material and social deprivation while accounting for individual level socioeconomic status in a large population-based cohort of Canadians.

Methods: More than 500,000 adults were followed for 22 years between 1982 and 2004. Tax records provided information on sex, income, marital status and postal code while a linkage was used to determine vital status.

Unintentional injury hospitalizations among children and youth in areas with a high percentage of Aboriginal identity residents: 2001/2002 to 2005/2006.

Background: Because administrative data typically do not contain Aboriginal identifiers, national unintentional injury hospitalization rates among Aboriginal children have not been reported. This study examines rates of unintentional injury hospitalization for children in areas with a high-percentage Aboriginal identity population.

Data And Methods: Data are from the Hospital Morbidity Database (2001/2002 to 2005/2006).

Geozones: an area-based method for analysis of health outcomes.

Background: Administrative datasets often lack information about individual characteristics such as Aboriginal identity and income. However, these datasets frequently contain individual-level geographic information (such as postal codes). This paper explains the methodology for creating Geozones, which are area-based thresholds of population characteristics derived from census data, which can be used in the analysis of social or economic differences in health and health service utilization.

Neighbourhood variation in hospitalization for unintentional injury among children and teenagers.

Background: Research suggests that living in more affluent neighbourhoods positively influences children's health. Relationships with injury are less clear. This study examines variations in rates of unintentional injury hospitalization by neighbourhood income for the population aged 0 to 19 in urban Canada.

Are obesity and physical activity clustered? A spatial analysis linked to residential density.

The aim of this study was to examine spatial clustering of obesity and/or moderate physical activity and their relationship to a neighborhood's built environment. Data on levels of obesity and moderate physical activity were derived from the results of a telephone survey conducted in 2006, with 1,863 survey respondents in the study sample. This sample was spread across eight suburban neighborhoods in Metro Vancouver.

Neighbourhood quality and self-rated health: a survey of eight suburban neighbourhoods in the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area.

We investigated the relationship between perceptions of neighbourhood quality and self-rated health for residents of eight suburban neighbourhoods with modestly contrasting income profiles in the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area. Survey respondents from lower income neighbourhoods more often rated their health as fair/poor, and perceived their neighbourhood to be of poor quality. The strongest predictors for fair/poor health status were employment status, body mass index, neighbourhood satisfaction, and age, while modest predictors were annual household income, neighbourhood median income profile, and perceptions of neighbourhood safety.

Effects of neighbourhood income on reported body mass index: an eight year longitudinal study of Canadian children.

Background: This study investigates the effects of neighbourhood income on children's Body Mass Index (BMI) from childhood (ages 2-3) to early adolescence (ages 10-11) using longitudinal data.

Methods: Five cycles of data from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth are analyzed for a sub-sample of children (n = 2152) aged 2-3 at baseline (1994) and assessed at two year intervals to 2002. Body mass index percentiles are based on height/weight estimates reported by proxy respondents (child's person most knowledgeable).

Does choice of spatial unit matter for estimating small-area disparities in health and place effects in the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area?

Background: The purposes of this study were to determine (i) the extent to which small-area estimates of self-rated health are dependent upon the choice of areal unit and measure of socio-economic (SES) status, and (ii) the extent to which place effects on self-rated health are dependent upon the choice of areal unit and measure of SES.

Methods: The data were obtained from a subset of respondents in the Canadian Community Health Survey 2.1 (2003) aged 18 to 74 residing in the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area.

Comparing circular and network buffers to examine the influence of land use on walking for leisure and errands.

Background: There is increasing interest in examining the influence of the built environment on physical activity. High-resolution data in a geographic information system is increasingly being used to measure salient aspects of the built environment and studies often use circular or road network buffers to measure land use around an individual's home address. However, little research has examined the extent to which the selection of circular or road network buffers influences the results of analysis.

A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials assessing drug-eluting stents and vascular brachytherapy in the treatment of coronary artery in-stent restenosis.

Objective: We undertook a meta-analysis of randomised trials assessing the outcome of vascular brachytherapy (VBT) or DES for the treatment of coronary artery ISR.

Methods And Results: Studies utilising DES or VBT for ISR were identified by a systematic search. Data was pooled and combined overall effect measures were calculated for a random effect model in terms of deaths, myocardial infarctions, revascularisation, binary restenosis, mean late luminal loss and major adverse cardiac events (MACE).

Neighbourhood socio-economic status and the prevalence of overweight Canadian children and youth.

Background: The purposes of this study are to determine (i) if neighbourhood socioeconomic status (SES) is systematically related to the prevalence of overweight children and youth in Canada, (ii) if the factors accounting for the apparent relationship have face validity, and (iii) if neighbourhood SES has an independent influence on this distribution.

Methods: Cross-sectional data from Cycle 4 (2000/2001) of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth were used. Children and youth aged 5 to 17 were included.