Chronic disease

Initial observational studies presented the Inuit as a population particularly protected against cardiovascular diseases (CVD), the plague of developed countries. However, because of the abandonment of traditional lifestyles, and the high prevalence of some risk factors (such as smoking 73% and obesity 19%), conclusions from the 1992 Santé Québec health survey of the Inuit population from Nunavik anticipated an increase in CVD. Twelve years later, the Nunavik Inuit Health Survey 2004…

The main objective of this report is to enable decision-makers in Montréal clinical and health administration settings be better informed of health service utilisation by people with heart failure who are living in their territories. The report on heart failure is part of the « Monitorage interprétatif » project conducted by the Équipe Santé des populations et services de santé (ESPSS), a joint team of the Direction de santé publique de Montréal and Institut national de santé publique du…

The main goal of this report is to allow health administration and clinical decision-makers in Montréal be more aware of health services utilisation by diabetics in their territories. The report on diabetes is part of the “Monitorage interprétatif” project conducted by the Équipe Santé des populations et services de santé (ESPSS), a joint team of the Montréal Public Health Department and the Institut national de santé publique du Québec. It is the first in a series of reports that will be…

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…

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…