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Introduction: British Columbia (BC) declared an overdose public health emergency in 2016. Since then, BC has consistently reported the highest overdose death rates of any province in Canada. In the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic, overdose deaths in BC reached a record high in 2020. This analysis reports on changes in the profile of people who have died of overdose since BC's declaration of COVID‐19 as a public health emergency on 17 March 2020. Methods: Using BC Coroners Service data, Chi‐square tests and multivariable logistic regression were conducted to compare demographic, geographic and post‐mortem toxicology data between people who died of overdose before (17 March–31 December 2019) and after (17 March–31 December 2020) BC's declaration of COVID‐19 as a public health emergency. Results: Overdose deaths observed since 17 March 2020 (n = 1516) more than doubled those observed in the same period in 2019 (n = 744). In the adjusted logistic regression model, odds of death in the post compared to pre‐COVID‐19 period was significantly higher among males compared to females, among all older age groups compared to people aged 30–39, and was lower in public buildings compared to private residences. Discussion and Conclusions: Alongside a significant increase in overdose deaths since BC's declaration of COVID‐19 as a public health emergency, the demographic profile of people who have died of overdose has changed. Ongoing overdose prevention efforts in BC must seek to reach people who remain most isolated, including older adults, who during dual public health emergencies are facing compounded risk of preventable mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective In this study, unique body mass index (BMI) trajectories from ages 1 to 20 years were identified; each trajectory according to socio demographic and family characteristics was described. Methods Participants came from two national population surveys ( n = 7,253; n = 901) and were aged 1-6 years at baseline. Children were surveyed biennially over eight waves up to 14-20 years of age. BMI trajectories by sex and survey cohort were identified by group-based trajectory modeling. After crossvalidating trajectories between survey cohorts, the characteristics of trajectory membership were assessed by multinomial regression. Results Four BMI trajectories were found: low, decreasing, medium, and high. The decreasing trajectory was characterized by an overweight or obese childhood followed by a normal-weight adolescence. The low, medium, and high trajectories were characterized by growth curves culminating, by age 20, to BMI 22.6, 29.3, and 34.9 kg/m2, respectively, for males and 20.6, 24.5, and 32.0 kg/m2, respectively, for females. Factors associated with the high trajectory included ethnicity and paternal education (female only), large for gestational age, rural area residence, and maternal smoking. Conclusions The identification and validation of four major trajectories reflect the heterogeneity in patterns of BMI development from 1 to 20 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To investigate relationships between periodic increases in minimum alcohol prices, changing densities of liquor stores and alcohol-attributable ( AA) deaths in British Columbia, Canada. Design Cross-section (16 geographic areas) versus time-series (32 annual quarters) panel analyses were conducted with AA deaths as dependent variables and price, outlet densities and socio-demographic characteristics as independent variables. Setting and participants Populations of 16 Health Service Delivery Areas in British Columbia, Canada. Measurements Age-sex-standardized rates of acute, chronic and wholly AA mortality; population densities of restaurants, bars, government and private liquor stores; minimum prices of alcohol in dollars per standard drink. Findings A 10% increase in average minimum price for all alcoholic beverages was associated with a 31.72% [95% confidence interval ( CI): ± 25.73%, P < 0.05] reduction in wholly AA deaths. Significantly negative lagged associations were also detected up to 12 months after minimum price increases for wholly but not for acute or chronic AA deaths. Significant reductions in chronic and total AA deaths were detected between 2 and 3 years after minimum price increases. Significant but inconsistent lagged associations were detected for acute AA deaths. A 10% increase in private liquor stores was associated with a 2.45% (95% CI: ± 2.39%, P < 0.05), 2.36% (95% CI: ± 1.57%, P < 0.05) and 1.99% (95% CI: ± 1.76%, P < 0.05) increase in acute, chronic and total AA mortality rates. Conclusion Increases in the minimum price of alcohol in British Columbia, Canada, between 2002 and 2009 were associated with immediate and delayed decreases in alcohol-attributable mortality. By contrast, increases in the density of private liquor stores were associated with increases in alcohol-attributable mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies reported differences in clinical treatments provided to ethnic minority children and white children. We examined whether there were differences in clinical treatments provided to Aboriginal and White infants in Canadian Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) and whether these potential differences could be explained by differences in population characteristics, community size, maternal neighbourhood income and hospital treatment policies. The study population included 10 166 infants ( n = 784 Aboriginal and n = 9382 white) admitted to 17 NICUs from all geographical regions of Canada participating in the Canadian Neonatal Network during January 1996–October 1997. We used logistic regression analyses to examine the association between ethnicity and each of seven clinical practices (surfactant treatment, antenatal steroids, blood transfusions, surgery, assisted ventilation, incubator use and transparental nutrition), after adjustment for potential confounders. We repeated theses analyses restricted to infants born <32 weeks gestation. In crude analyses, in the full sample, Aboriginal infants were less likely than white infants to receive surfactants, antenatal steroids, surgery, assisted ventilation, incubator and transparental nutrition. Among infants born <32 weeks gestation, Aboriginal infants were less likely than white infants to receive antenatal steroids, assisted ventilation, incubator and transparental nutrition. In both groups, adjusting for illness severity, gestational age and multiple births separately (model 2) and in combination with neighbourhood income and community size (model 3) resulted in non-significant associations between ethnicity and some of the treatments, but the addition of adjustment for the hospital variation in frequency of use of different treatments resulted in non-significant associations between ethnicity and all seven treatments. Additional studies are needed to explore the significance of hospital frequency of treatment and its relationship to ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A response by J. Zhao and colleagues to a letter to the editor about their article "The relationship between changes to minimum alcohol price, outlet densities and alcohol-related death in British Columbia, 2002-2009" in the March 2013 online issue is presented.