Surveillance

Since 2000, cancer has been the main cause of death in Quebec (Institut de la statistique du Québec, 2003). However, the standardized death rate due to cancer, like most other causes of death, has been declining steadily since the early 1990s (ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, 2003; ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, 2004), while life expectancy at birth of the Quebec population has increased in recent decades. With the number of seniors growing steadily and the risk…

If the prevalence of diabetes is high in the general Québec population, studies done of Aboriginal communities show that the prevalence in this population are three to four times greater than those observed in the general population (Canada 1999). The prevalence of diabetes has increased significantly over the last 20 years among the Cree population of Northern Québec (Eeyou Istchee) aged 20 years and over, from a few cases before the 1980s, to about 5.2% in the late eighties, to 7.1% in…

Premature mortality caused by cancer and the public health challenge it represents have given rise to a myriad of studies on the contribution of material and social living conditions to varying risks of morbidity and mortality. Thus, European and American studies have shown that cancer mortality—and some cancers more than others—often hits disadvantaged socioeconomic groups and regions hardest, and that this relationship persists even when individual behavior is taken into account. Numerous…

This proposed health survey is in line with the updating of the responsibilities entrusted to the public health Director regarding the function of surveillance of the population’s health status and health determinants. In particular, under Section 43 of the Public Health Act (PHA), the latter is responsible for submitting the proposed survey to the CESP and for ensuring compliance with rules relating to the confidentiality and protection of personal information.

According to the new…

Cancer registries are essential tools for monitoring cancer. There are four main components to the quality of this type of registry: completeness, validity of data, timeliness of access to data, and range of data available.

Completeness refers to the ability of a cancer registry to identify and register all new cancer cases diagnosed within a population. Completeness can vary considerably from one place to another, because of variations in resources and data collection methods, or…

In May 2002, in cooperation with the Ministère de la Santé et Services sociaux, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) published survival tables for the four main cancer sites—lung, breast (female), colorectal, and prostate—for cases reported to the Quebec Cancer Registry (QCR) in 1992. These cases were used to calculate the relative survival probability five years after diagnosis.

The study was designed to measure the quality of the incidence and mortality data…

The main purpose of this study is to describe the quality of the data used to calculate survival in Quebec. The discussion will focus on the quality of incidence and mortality data, the kind of file linkage needed to determine a person’s vital status, and the influence that this data quality has on survival results. This study is also part of a Canada-wide initiative to quantify cancer survival. Statistics Canada and the Canadian Cancer Survival Analysis Group have produced a Canadian Cancer…

Studies show a relationship between social inequality and intentional and unintentional trauma (Marmot et al., 1999; Leclerc et al., 2000). This relationship is poorly understood in Quebec, however, since data on trauma is derived primarily from administrative files (for death and hospitalization), which contain no information on the socioeconomic status of trauma victims.

The recent development of a deprivation index that can be used with these files enables us to at least partially…