Predictors of home care expenditures and death at home for cancer patients in an integrated comprehensive palliative home care pilot program.

Purpose: Empirical understanding of predictors for home care service use and death at home is important for healthcare planning. Few studies have examined these predictors in the context of the publicly funded Canadian home care system. This study examined predictors for home care use and home death in the context of a "gold standard" comprehensive palliative home care program pilot in Ontario where patients had equal access to home care services.

Mapping health on the internet: a new tool for environmental justice and public health research.

This paper examines the prospects for integrating Internet platform GIS or 'web-GIS' into environmental justice and related public health research. Specifically, we document the development of a web-GIS created for investigating relationships between health, air quality and socioeconomic factors in Hamilton, Canada. After development of the web-GIS site, we assembled a focus group of public health professionals to test functionality and render opinions about the potential of the site and geographic information in their program implementation.

Inequalities in neighbourhood socioeconomic characteristics: potential evidence-base for neighbourhood health planning.

Background: Population health planning aims to improve the health of the entire population and to reduce health inequities among population groups. Socioeconomic factors are increasingly being recognized as major determinants of many aspects of health and causes of health inequities. Knowledge of socioeconomic characteristics of neighbourhoods is necessary to identify their unique health needs and enhance identification of socioeconomically disadvantaged populations.

Hospitalization and emergency department visits among seniors receiving homecare: a pilot study.

Background: Despite the recent growth in home health services, data on clinical outcomes and acute health care utilization among older adults receiving homecare services are sparse. Obtaining such data is particularly relevant in Ontario where an increasing number of frail seniors receiving homecare are awaiting placement in long-term care facilities. In order to determine the feasibility of a large-scale study, we conducted a pilot study to assess utilization of acute health care services among seniors receiving homecare to determine associated clinical outcomes.

Service preferences among family caregivers of the terminally ill.

Objective: The ability of families to assume caregiving responsibilities is contingent on material, social, and professional support. Inadequate or inappropriate support to the terminally ill and their family caregivers can result in the misuse of resources and add burden to the family. In this report, we describe service preferences among informal caregivers of the terminally ill.

Evaluation of a HACCP pilot program for the food service industry.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and applicability of a HACCP-based program for use in restaurants.

Participants: A randomly selected sample of 16 intervention and 42 control full service, "stand-alone" restaurants with a minimum of 3 full-time food handling staff on duty per shift.

Setting: Six communities in Central West Ontario.

Angina and socio-economic status in Ontario: how do characteristics of the county you live in influence your chance of developing heart disease?

Objective: To assist in the development of community heart health programming and policy development, the Central West Health Planning Information Network (CWHPIN) was asked by its partners to collaborate in obtaining information that might clarify the relationships between socio-economic status (SES) and heart disease among residents of Ontario, Canada. The purpose of this component of the project was to explore, at the county level, how much of the variation in angina pectoris (angina) could be explained by SES variables.

Study Design: Linear regression modeling was used to identify key predictors of angina hospitalization rates in counties Ontario-wide.