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Health equity and population health

Health equity and population health jtseng_master

Health equity is achieved when everyone, regardless of sex, gender, income, race or other socio-demographic characteristics, has the fair opportunity to reach their optimal health. In Canada, differences across population subgroups (or inequalities) are significant for a range of health care indicators and are generally persisting or worsening over time. Health systems with a commitment to health equity recognize that measurement matters. The collection, measurement and reporting of socio-demographic data enables health systems to identify inequalities in care across populations, inform meaningful strategies and monitor progress in improving care for all patients.

Explore information on health equity, including reports, data tables, methods and other key resources.

Featured material

Measuring Health Inequalities: A Toolkit

  • Toolkit
  • June 9, 2022
This page provides resources and a brief introduction on how to plan your analysis, analyze your data and report your findings when measuring health inequalities. The reporting is on equity stratifiers such as income, age, education, gender, geographic location, sex at birth, racialized groups and Indigenous identity.

Race-based and Indigenous identity data

  • Release summary
  • March 17, 2022
Race-based and Indigenous identity data is essential for measuring health inequalities and disparities, and for identifying inequities that stem from racism, bias and discrimination.

Reports and releases

See all reports and releases

Health equity and population health: Reports and releases

Health equity and population health: Reports and releases jtseng_master

This page lists health equity and population health reports, stories, infographics and release summaries.

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Commonwealth Fund survey, 2023

  • Release summary
  • Published
The 2023 Commonwealth Fund survey looked at the views and health care experiences of the general population age 18+ in 10 high-income countries, including Canada.

COVID-19 hospitalization and emergency department statistics

  • Release summary
  • Published
​​Explore the most recent information on hospitalizations and emergency department visits for patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19, including volumes, patient demographics and other key factors.

Shared Health Priorities

  • Project
  • Published
Working with the federal/provincial/territorial governments, CIHI is developing indicators to measure access to services for mental health and substance use, and home and community care.

Health equity and population health: Data tables

Health equity and population health: Data tables jtseng_master

This page lists data tables that provide information about health equity, health inequalities and population health.

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Drug Use Among Seniors in Canada, 2021 — Data Tables (XLSX)

  • Data tables
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​Data tables about the use of top drug classes among seniors overall and among seniors in long-term care, as well as by age group, sex, neighbourhood income and geographic location.

Health equity and population health: Indicators

Health equity and population health: Indicators jtseng_master

This page lists CIHI’s indicators on health equity, health inequalities and population health.

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Aboriginal Population

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Aboriginal Identity Population, Proportion of Total Population (Percentage)

Children Vulnerable in Areas of Early Development

  • Indicator
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This indicator measures the percentage of children who are considered vulnerable in at least one developmental domain at school entry, as measured by the Early Development Instrument (EDI).

Hospitalized Heart Attacks

  • Indicator
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This indicator measures the age-standardized rate of new acute myocardial infarction (AMI) events admitted to an acute care hospital for the population age 18 and older.

Hospitalized Hip Fracture Event

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator measures the age-standardized rate of new hip fractures admitted to an acute care hospital, per 100,000 population age 65 and older.

Hospitalized Strokes

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator measures the age-standardized rate of new stroke events admitted to an acute care hospital for the Canadian population age 18 and older.

Injury Hospitalization

  • Indicator
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This indicator measures the age-standardized rate of acute care hospitalizations due to injury resulting from the transfer of energy, per 100,000 population.

Life Expectancy at Age 65

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator gives the number of years a person would be expected to live, starting from age 65, if the age- and sex-specific mortality rates were held constant over their life span.

Life Expectancy at Birth

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator gives the number of years a person would be expected to live, starting at birth, if the age- and sex-specific mortality rates were held constant over their life span.

Obesity (Age 18 and Older)

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator measures the percentage of adults who are considered to be obese (body mass index higher than 30), based on self-reported height and weight.

Physical Activity (Age 18 and Older)

  • Indicator
  • Published
The percentage of the population age 18 and older who reported being physically active. Being physically active for adults is defined as participating in at least 150 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week, in bouts…

Health equity and population health: Tools

Health equity and population health: Tools jtseng_master

This page lists CIHI’s health equity tools that support measurement of health inequalities.

Showing 1 to 5 of 5 results

Canadian COVID-19 Intervention Timeline

  • Tool
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Selected interventions (policies and other measures) to reduce the spread of and improve health outcomes from COVID-19 by jurisdiction (Canada, province, territory), including case counts.

Data Preview for Indicators Tool

  • Tool
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The Data Preview for Indicators web tool is used by stakeholders to review or validate their indicator results before they are made publicly available.

NACRS Clinic Lite

  • Tool
  • Published
Canadian ambulatory clinics can use NACRS Clinic Lite for low-cost data collection and data reporting.

Your Health System: Insight

  • Tool
  • Published
Your Health System: Insight is an analytical tool that allows health care providers and analysts to dig deeper into indicator results. Find out more about what Insight can offer, how to get access and the data refresh schedule.

Health equity and population health: News and podcasts

Health equity and population health: News and podcasts jtseng_master

This page contains media releases, bulletins and podcast episodes about health equity, health inequalities and population health.

Showing 1 to 10 of 24 results

Frailty in Canada — Dr. Kenneth Rockwood

  • Podcast episode
  • Published
On this episode of the CHIP, host Avis Favaro speaks with Dr. Kenneth Rockwood, clinical research professor of frailty and aging at Dalhousie University, about the risks of frailty.

Climate Change and Health in Canada — Dr. Howard Njoo

  • Podcast episode
  • Published
In this episode of the CHIP, we are joined by Canada’s deputy chief public health officer, Dr. Howard Njoo, to discuss the effects of climate change on health and what average people in Canada can do to help themselves and the environment.

Climate Change and Health in Canada — Dr. Theresa Tam

  • Podcast episode
  • Published
In this episode of the CHIP, we are joined by Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, to discuss the effects of climate change on health and what average people in Canada can do to help themselves and the environment.

Palliative Care in Canada — Bernard Lapointe and Philippe Miquel

  • Podcast episode
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In this episode of the CHIP, host Alya Niang speaks with McGill University professor Bernard Lapointe and documentary filmmaker Philippe Miquel about the state of palliative care in Canada and why it is such a critical part of health care.

Palliative Care in Canada — Dr. Naheed Dosani

  • Podcast episode
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In this episode of the CHIP, host Avis Favaro speaks with Dr. Naheed Dosani about the state of palliative care in Canada and why it is such a critical part of health care.

Virtual Care in Canada — Dr. Ewan Affleck

  • Podcast episode
  • Published
In this episode of the CHIP, host Avis Favaro speaks with Dr. Ewan Affleck about the future of virtual care in Canada and why he is so passionate about continuing its growth.

Virtual Care in Canada — Dr. Onil Bhattacharyya

  • Podcast episode
  • Published
In this episode of the CHIP, host Alya Niang speaks with Dr. Onil Bhattacharyya about the future of virtual care in Canada and why he is so passionate about continuing its growth.

Health equity and population health: Education resources

Health equity and population health: Education resources jtseng_master

Through our Learning Centre, CIHI provides opportunities for health professionals to understand our evolving reporting systems and the application of our standards, data and analytics. We offer many courses and resources for a variety of audiences, including clinicians, assessors, data submitters and analysts, decision-makers, policy planners and researchers.

Courses and resources are available in a variety of formats, including eLearning modules, PDF and page-based documents, live and recorded web conferences, and videos.

Also check out CIHI’s Measuring Health Inequalities: A Toolkit, a set of resources designed to help analysts and researchers measure and report on health inequalities.

On this page:

Learning opportunities

Resources offered through the Learning Centre include the following: 

 

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Browse our catalogues

With 300 learning products in a variety of areas, we’re sure to have something that meets your needs — and our online courses will always fit your schedule.

Visit the Education page 

Other education resources

Resources offered through CIHI include the following:

Measuring Health Inequalities: An Introduction

View video with transcript 

Showing 1 to 10 of 39 results

CIHI Language Codes

  • User guide
  • Published
This CIHI standard language code pick-list is a subset of the current ISO 639-3 standard and is based on Statistics Canada language groups. It includes unique language codes that are relevant to Canada.

Population Grouping Methodology (video)

  • Video
  • Published
This video explains how CIHI’s Population Grouping Methodology helps Canada’s health system policy-makers and planners better understand the health conditions in a population and their associated costs.

Sorting Out Case Mix (video)

  • Video
  • Published
This video explains how sorting information about each person into similar categories — or case-mix groups — can help us better understand the populations we're caring for and meet their individual needs.

Equity stratifiers

  • Resource collection
  • Published
​​Documents outlining pan-Canadian guidance for reporting on health inequalities using 8 equity stratifiers such as gender, income, Indigenous identity and racialized group.