This section presents information about chronic and infectious disease, as well as self-rated health.
Why is this important?
A person's health can affect all other aspects of their life. Chronic and infectious diseases can impact a person's mental health, quality of life and lead to premature death.[1,2,3,4]
Change in behaviours and habits can be part of preventing and managing disease. Addressing root causes of poor health such as adverse childhood experiences and barriers to the social determinants of health are also important parts of reducing risk for and incidence of disease.[5,6]
Indicators
Chronic Disease |
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Chronic diseases are long-term illnesses that do not get better on their own and often get worse over time. Chronic diseases can often be managed, but are rarely cured completely. Early identification can support good treatments that improve people's health and quality of life.[7] Diabetes, Cancer, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Heart Disease prevalence are captured as part of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). The CCHS uses probability sampling.[10] Measures
Why are Chronic Diseases Important?People who are chronically ill are likely to deal with more than one chronic disease.[7] The chances you will get a chronic disease go up if you have a poor diet, use tobacco, and/or are not physically active.[8] Change in behavior can be part of decreasing these modifiable risk factors. Age and heredity are the two main non-modifiable risk factors that can lead to chronic disease.[8] Risk factors and likelihood of developing chronic disease are also influenced by the social, economic and physical conditions that a person experiences, including adverse childhood experiences and lack of access to social determinants of health (such good working conditions and food security).[3,5,9] |
Reportable Infectious Disease |
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Reportable infectious diseases include vaccine preventable diseases (e.g. measles), sexual transmitted infections (e.g. chlamydia), enteric diseases (e.g. hepatitis A), vector borne diseases (e.g. lyme disease) and tuberculosis.[12] Every year, infectious diseases (both individual cases and outbreaks of disease) cause illness and death in Canada.[13] The spread of infectious disease can be prevented by hand washing, getting vaccinated, staying home when ill, preparing food safely, practicing safe sex, and not sharing personal items.[14] From 2000-2009, each year infectious disease caused 2.4 to 4.4% of all deaths that occurred in Guelph Wellington and Dufferin.[15] For more information see: Infectious Disease in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph. |
Self-Rated Health |
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Self-rated health is your perception of your own physical health. This measure presents the subjective measure of an individual's physical health as either excellent, very good, good, fair or poor. Self-perceived health was captured as part of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). The CCHS uses probability sampling.[10] Measures
Why is Self-Rated Physical Health Important?When people are asked to rate their health, they take into consideration more aspects of their life than could be covered through a survey or questionnaire. Self-rated Health is a strong predictor of mortality, morbidity and functional limitation.[16] It is also a reliable way to understand a person's overall health.[17]
LimitationsSelf-reported information is influenced by response bias and person's ability to accurately remember their past behavious, experiences, and perceptions. Looking for more information?Please download the excel spread sheet below for more information about this measure.
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Notes
The CCHS uses probability sampling. Therefore, each person in the sample represents (besides themselves) several other persons in the sample. A sample weight is calculated based on the number of people that that person represents within the population. For example, in a random sample of 1% of the population, each person in the sample would represent 100 persons in the population.[10]
References
[1] Canadian Mental Health Association (2017). The Relationship between Mental Health, Mental Illness and Chronic Physical Conditions. Available at: https://ontario.cmha.ca/documents/the-relationship-between-mental-health-mental-illness-and-chronic-physical-conditions/
[2] National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (n.d.) Infectious diseases and population mental health promotion for children and youth. Available at: http://nccph.ca/images/uploads/general/05_Infectious_diseases_MentalHealth_NCCPH_2017_EN.pdf
[3] Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (2007). Preventing and Managing Chronic Disease: Ontario's Framework. Available at: http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/cdpm/pdf/framework_full.pdf
[4] Kwong J.C., Crowcroft N.S., Campitelli M.A., Ratnasingham S., Daneman N., Deeks S.L., Manuel D.G. (2010). Ontario Burden of Infectious Disease Study Advisory Group; Ontario Burden of Infectious Disease Study (ONBOIDS): An OAHPP/ICES Report. Toronto: Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. Available at: http://www.publichealthontario.ca/en/eRepository/ONBoID_ICES_Report_ma18.pdf
[5] Felitti, V.J., Anda, R.F., Nordenberg, M.D., Williamson, D.F., Spitz, A.M., Edwards, V., Koss, M.P., Marks, J.S. (1998). Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults.American Journal of Preventive Medicine 14(4). Available at: http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(98)00017-8/pdf
[6] Mikkonen, J. & Raphael, D. (2010). Social Determinants of Health: The Canadian Facts. Toronto: York University School of Health Policy and Management. Available at: http://www.thecanadianfacts.org/The_Canadian_Facts.pdf
[7] Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (2007). Preventing and Managing Chronic Disease: Ontario's Framework. Available at: http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/cdpm/pdf/framework_full.pdf
[8] World Health Organization (2005). Facing the Facts #1: Chronic diseases and other Common Risk Factors Available at: http://www.who.int/chp/chronic_disease_report/media/Factsheet1.pdf
[9] Mikkonen, J. & Raphael, D. (2010). Social Determinants of Health: The Canadian Facts. Toronto: York University School of Health Policy and Management. Available at: http://www.thecanadianfacts.org/The_Canadian_Facts.pdf
[10] Statistics Canada (2015). Canadian Community Health Survey - Annual Component (CCHS). Available at: http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=3226
[11] Association of Public Health Epidemiologists in Ontario (2015). 4A Chronic health problems prevalence. Available at: http://core.apheo.ca/index.php?pid=101
[12] Association of Public Health Epidemiologists in Ontario (2015). Infectious Disease Incidence. Available at: http://core.apheo.ca/index.php?pid=167
[13] Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (2013). Infectious Disease in Wellington-Dufferin- Guelph. Available at: http://www.wdgpublichealth.ca/sites/default/files/wdgphfiles/infectious-disease-hs-report-2013.pdf
[14] Mayo Clinic (2017). Infectious Diseases. Available at: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/infectious-diseases/manage/ptc-20168678
[15] Trotz-Williams, L., Paphitis, K. (2012). Infectious Disease in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph. Available at: https://www.wdgpublichealth.ca/sites/default/files/file-attachments/report/hs_report_2012-infectious-disease-in-wdg_access.pdf
[16] Manor, O., Matthews, S., Power, C. (2011). Self-rated health and limiting longstanding illness: inter-relationships with morbidity in early adulthood. Int J Epidemiol 30 (3): 600-607.
[17] Schnittker, J., & Bacak, V. (2014). The Increasing Predictive Validity of Self-Rated Health. PLoS ONE, 9(1) Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3899056/
[18] Haydon E, Roerecke M, Giesbrecht N, Rehm J, Kobus-Matthews M. Chronic disease in Ontario and Canada: Determinants, Risk Factors and Prevention Priorities. Toronto: Ontario Chronic Disease Prevention Association, 2006. Available from: http://www.ocdpa.on.ca/docs/CDP-FullReport-Mar06.pdf.