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Background: Understanding the complex interaction of risk factors that increase the likelihood of developing common diseases is challenging. The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project (CPTP) is a prospective cohort study created as a population-health research platform for assessing the effect of genetics, behaviour, family health history and environment (among other factors) on chronic diseases.Methods: Volunteer participants were recruited from the general Canadian population for a confederation of 5 regional cohorts. Participants were enrolled in the study and core information obtained using 2 approaches: attendance at a study assessment centre for all study measures (questionnaire, venous blood sample and physical measurements) or completion of the core questionnaire (online or paper), with later collection of other study measures where possible. Physical measurements included height, weight, percentage body fat and blood pressure. Participants consented to passive follow-up through linkage with administrative health databases and active follow-up through recontact. All participant data across the 5 regional cohorts were harmonized.Results: A total of 307 017 participants aged 30-74 from 8 provinces were recruited. More than half provided a venous blood sample and/or other biological sample, and 33% completed physical measurements. A total of 709 harmonized variables were created; almost 25% are available for all participants and 60% for at least 220 000 participants.Interpretation: Primary recruitment for the CPTP is complete, and data and biosamples are available to Canadian and international researchers through a data-access process. The CPTP will support research into how modifiable risk factors, genetics and the environment interact to affect the development of cancer and other chronic diseases, ultimately contributing evidence to reduce the global burden of chronic disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The unprecedented demographic change of the aging Canadian society has raised numerous questions, including the provision of health care and the national pension plan to an increasingly large older population. Surprisingly, however, there is little Canadian literature regarding the travel behavior of its older population, an oversight that this paper addresses. Using the 1986, 1992, and 1998 General Social Surveys and pseudo-cohort methods, this paper addresses changing driving behavior among older Canadians, and compares the ‘old’ and ‘transitional old’ to younger-aged cohorts. Results indicate that while older Canadians undertake fewer trips, and travel for different reasons than those in the labor force, their reliance upon the private automobile for transportation is no less significant. Specifically, we demonstrate that the number of trips by car with older drivers increase over the study period as the population ages. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Please cite this paper as: Sword W, Kurtz Landy C, Thabane L, Watt S, Krueger P, Farine D, Foster G. Is mode of delivery associated with postpartum depression at 6 weeks: a prospective cohort study. BJOG 2011;118:966-977. To examine the relationship between delivery mode and postpartum depression at 6 weeks following hospital discharge. A prospective cohort study. Eleven hospitals in Ontario, Canada. A total of 2560 women ≥16 years of age who delivered singleton, live infants at term. Women completed a questionnaire in hospital and 74% ( n = 1897) participated in a structured telephone interview 6 weeks after discharge. Additional data were extracted from labour and delivery records. Generalised estimating equations (GEEs) were used to investigate factors associated with postpartum depression. Women were screened for depression at 6 weeks following hospital discharge using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). A score of ≥12 on the EPDS was used as a measure of the primary outcome, depression. Mode of delivery was not independently associated with postpartum depression, and did not factor into the main-effects model. The multivariable analysis identified 11 predictor variables for depression: young maternal age (OR 5.27; 95% CI 2.73-10.15); maternal hospital readmission (OR 3.02; 95% CI 1.46-6.24); non-initiation of breastfeeding (OR 2.02; 95% CI 0.99-4.11); good, fair, or poor self-reported postpartum health (OR 1.82; 95% CI 1.19-2.80); urinary incontinence (OR 1.79; 95% CI 1.06-3.03); multiparity (OR 1.59; 95% CI 1.22-2.08); low mental health functioning (OR 1.20; 95% CI 1.15-1.25); low subjective social status (OR 1.16; 95% CI 1.02-1.33); high number of unmet learning needs in hospital (OR 1.12; 95% CI 1.03-1.22); low social support (OR 1.06; 95% CI 1.03-1.09); and low physical health functioning (OR 1.03; 95% CI 1.003-1.055). An exploratory interaction model revealed that caesarean section was associated with higher odds of becoming depressed in Canadian-born women, but that in women born outside of Canada it was associated with a lower risk of becoming depressed. Delivery mode had no significant impact on the development of postpartum depression in the main-effects model. However, it may interact with place of birth and other unmeasured factors to create a risk for depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health and social conditions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples in Canada remain important policy concerns. The life course has been proposed by some as a framework for analysis that could assist in the development of policies that would improve the economic and social inclusion of Aboriginal peoples. In this paper we support the goal of applying a life-course perspective to policies related to Aboriginal peoples but suggest that the framework needs to consider the unique relationship between Aboriginal peoples and public policies. We provide some illustrations using data from the 2001 Aboriginal Peoples Survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La littérature, largement basée sur les données du recensement en coupe transversale, a suggéré que les récentes vagues d'immigrants au Canada gagnent moins que celles arrivées plus tôt en comparaison avec les salalres des Canadiens. Les données de base longitudinales sur l'immigration développées par Citoyenneté et Immigration Canada ainsi que Statistiques Canada fournissent des données assez riches pour étudier les profils des salaires des immigrants. Grâice à l'étude de ces tableaux, cet article cherche à estimer l'écart initial des salaires entre les immigrants et les Canadiens ainsi que la capacité des immigrants à combler cet écart. Cet article propose également de calculer le nombre d'années qu'ils ont pris pour atteindre un équilibre salarial avec les Canadiens. Les résultats montrent que les récentes vagues d'immigrants gagnent moins, initialement, que les premieres. Cependant, elles ont réussi à combler l'écart salarial plus rapidement. Des explications expérimentales sont offertes. The literature, largely based on cross-sectional census data, has suggested that recent immigrant cohorts to Canada earned less than earlier ones relative to Canadians' earnings. The Longitudinal Immigration Data Base (IMDB) developed by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Statistics Canada provides rich data for studying immigrants' longitudinal earnings profiles. Using custom-made IMDB tables, this paper estimates the initial earnings gap between immigrants and Canadians, and immigrants' catch-up capacity, defined as the number of years immigrants took, or expected to take, to reach earnings parity with Canadians. The findings show that recent immigrant cohorts earned less initially than earlier ones, but caught up faster. Some tentative explanations and policy implications are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the patterns of timing of births of women using data from the Canadian Fertility Survey of 1984. Semi-Markovian schemes are applied to the maternity histories of the 5315 sample women in their reproductive ages in order to measure the intensity and timing of childbearing. Age-and-duration-specific transition probabilities are found to have substantially changed for the more recent birth cohorts compared to the older cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the broad movements of Canadian period and cohort fertility over the last hundred years or so, and compares them with corresponding trends in the United States and other industrialized countries. The main movement in Canada was a decline in fertility extending from the nineteenth century to the present time, interrupted in the 1940s and 1950s by a ‘baby boom’. The long decline in cohort fertility is largely explained by the decrease in the proportions of families of six or more children. This decrease continued during the baby boom, but in these years was more than offset, though not for Catholics, by the effects of increases in the proportions of families with three, four, and five children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]