Rural and urban disparities in the care of Canadian patients with inflammatory bowel disease: a population-based study.

Background And Aims: Canada's large geographic area and low population density pose challenges in access to specialized health care for remote and rural residents. We compared health services use, surgical rate, and specialist gastroenterologist care in rural and urban inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients in Canada.

Methods: We used validated algorithms that were applied to population-based health administrative data to identify all people living with the following three Canadian provinces: Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario (ON).

Premature mortality due to social and material deprivation in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Introduction: Inequalities in health attributable to inequalities in society have long been recognized. Typically, those most privileged experience better health, regardless of universal access to health care. Associations between social and material deprivation and mortality from all causes of death--a measure of population health, have been described for some regions of Canada.

Arsenic in drinking water and urinary tract cancers: a systematic review of 30 years of epidemiological evidence.

Background: Arsenic in drinking water is a public health issue affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. This review summarizes 30 years of epidemiological studies on arsenic exposure in drinking water and the risk of bladder or kidney cancer, quantifying these risks using a meta-analytical framework.

Methods: Forty studies met the selection criteria.

Variation in the use of palliative radiotherapy at end of life: examining demographic, clinical, health service, and geographic factors in a population-based study.

Palliative radiotherapy (PRT) can improve quality of life for people dying of cancer. Variation in the delivery of PRT by factors unrelated to need may indicate that not all patients who may benefit from PRT receive it. In this study, 13,494 adults who died of cancer between 2000 and 2005 in Nova Scotia, Canada, were linked to radiotherapy records.