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Accessible summary Social support has positive and negative dimensions, each of which has been associated with mental health outcomes. Social networks can also serve as sources of distress and conflict., This paper reviews journal articles published during the last 24 years to provide a consolidated summary of the role of social support and social conflict on immigrant women's mental health. The review reveals that social support can help immigrant women adjust to the new country, prevent depression and psychological distress, and access care and services. When social support is lacking or social networks act as a source of conflict, it can have negative effects on immigrant women's mental health., It is crucial that interventions, programmes, and services incorporate strategies to both enhance social support as well as reduce social conflict, in order to improve mental health and well-being of immigrant women., Abstract Researchers have documented the protective role of social support and the harmful consequences of social conflict on physical and mental health. However, consolidated information about social support, social conflict, and mental health of immigrant women in Canada is not available. This scoping review examined literature from the last 24 years to understand how social support and social conflict affect the mental health of immigrant women in Canada. We searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Healthstar, and EMBASE for peer-reviewed publications focusing on mental health among immigrant women in Canada. Thirty-four articles that met our inclusion criteria were reviewed, and are summarized under the following four headings: settlement challenges and the need for social support; social support and mental health outcomes; social conflict and reciprocity; and social support, social conflict, and mental health service use. The results revealed that social support can have a positive effect on immigrant women's mental health and well-being, and facilitate social inclusion and the use of health services. When social support is lacking or social networks act as a source of conflict, it can have negative effects on immigrant women's mental health. The results also highlighted the need for health services to be linguistically-appropriate and culturally-safe, and provide appropriate types of care and support in a timely manner in order to be helpful to immigrant women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Examining support for substance use policies, including those for harm reduction, among the general public and policy influencers is a fundamental step to map the current policy landscape and leverage policy opportunities. Yet, this is a knowledge gap in Canada. Our paper identifies the level of support for substance use policies in two provinces in Canada and describes how the level of support is associated with intrusiveness and sociodemographic variables., Methods: Data came from the 2019 Chronic Disease Prevention Survey. The representative sample included members of the general public (Alberta n = 1648, Manitoba n = 1770) as well as policy influencers (Alberta n = 204, Manitoba n = 98). We measured the level of support for 22 public policies concerning substance use through a 4-point Likert-scale. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics Intervention Ladder framework was applied to assess intrusiveness. We used cumulative link models to run ordinal regressions for identification of explanatory sociodemographic variables., Results: Overall, there was generally strong support for the policies assessed. The general public in Manitoba was significantly more supportive of policies than its Alberta counterpart. Some differences were found between provinces and samples. For certain substance use policies, there was stronger support among women than men and among those with higher education than those with less education., Conclusions: The results highlight areas where efforts are needed to increase support from both policy influencers and general public for adoption, implementation, and scaling of substance use policies. Socio-demographic variables related to support for substance use policies may be useful in informing strategies such as knowledge mobilization to advance the policy landscape in Western Canada., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The recent SARS-COV-2 pandemic has sparked the adoption of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) as a low-cost way to monitor the health of populations. In parallel, the pandemic has encouraged researchers to openly share their data to serve the public better and accelerate science. However, environmental surveillance data are highly dependent on context and are difficult to interpret meaningfully across sites. This paper presents the second iteration of the Public Health Environmental Surveillance Open Data Model (PHES-ODM), an open-source dictionary and set of data tools to enhance the interoperability of environmental surveillance data and enable the storage of contextual (meta)data. The data model describes how to store environmental surveillance program data, metadata about measurements taken on various specimens (water, air, surfaces, sites, populations) and data about measurement protocols. The model provides software tools that support the collection and use of PHES-ODM formatted data, including performing PCR calculations and data validation, recording data into input templates, generating wide tables for analysis, and producing SQL database definitions. Fully open-source and already adopted by institutions in Canada, the European Union, and other countries, the PHES-ODM provides a path forward for creating robust, interoperable, open datasets for environmental public health surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 and beyond.

Health literacy, conceptualized as a framework involving basic (functional), interactive and critical skill sets, is a key determinant of health. Application of the health literacy framework (HLF) to immigrant populations has been limited. Our objective was to apply the HLF to discourses about diet-related colon cancer prevention among English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) immigrant women. We also explored whether these discussions could inform the development of culturally appropriate information and potentially increase health literacy. Interviews were conducted with 64 older Spanish-speaking ESL immigrant women. Directed content analysis guided by the HLF was used to identify themes. Diet-related conversations were initiated by 43 (67%) participants. Four themes were identified: general information requests-low functional health literacy (FHL) (n = 23/43), specific nutrition inquiries-high FHL (n = 17/43), actions for healthy eating-low interactive health literacy (IHL) (n = 8/43) and community communication issues-high IHL (n = 3/43). No conversations representing critical health literacy were identified. Five women discussed both FHL and IHL themes. Women's diet-related conversations followed a continuum of increasing information needs supporting the HLF.

Background: In 1989, governments in Canada perceived an economic crisis in health care funding and commissioned two economists, Drs. Barer and Stoddart, to review policies. They indicated that major costs were caused by physicians and recommended cutting physician training and hospital facilities. In 1991 governments selectively implemented their recommendations. The Federally established Romanow Commission 're-reviewed' the problem and reported in 2002., Objectives: To examine whether there was an economic crisis and to assess the effects of reductions in funding on the provision of health care in Canada., Method: We analyzed data from Statistics Canada, the Association of Canadian Medical Colleges, and the Canadian Institute of Health Information, the Canadian Nurses Association, and Health Canada. We focus exclusively on public health care spending., Results: Publicly financed health care spending remained stable as percentage of Gross Domestic Product in the five years leading up to the commissioning of the Barer-Stoddart report (1986-1990). An increase in the elderly population partly explained rising costs. By 2000, people over 65 accounted for 48% of overall health costs. Emerging from the report's recommendations, between 1990 and 2000 medical students and residents as a proportion of the population were cut by 17% and 12% respectively and hospital beds by a third. Nurses per 100,000 fell 12%. Home care remained under-funded, less than 4% of the total health budget., Conclusion: There was no economic health care crisis in the early 1990s. Growing costs were principally due to increased patient need. Funding reductions resulted in inadequate care, including the creation of prolonged wait lists that have resulted in legalizing private care, thereby threatening the universal equal care principle.

To determine whether otitis media affects First Nations children more severely than other children, I studied the data on otitis media occurrence among these children; on risk factors, particularly bottle feeding; and on prevention and treatment. First Nations children do seem to have more severe otitis media than other children. Health promotion might help ameliorate the situation. Supporting breastfeeding in the community is strongly recommended.

Why do some women have difficult labor whereas other women have relatively easy labor? A study of possible predisposing factors was conducted in 398 and 383 primiparas admitted for uncomplicated spontaneous labor at two hospitals. Psychosocial factors, notably anxiety about childbirth, and physical factors, especially maternal height and body mass index, were measured before the onset of labor. Difficult labor was defined in primiparas admitted to the hospital for spontaneous uncomplicated labor as (1) prolonged labor that was longer than 15 hours from admission until full dilation with vaginal delivery or (2) cesarean section. Anxiety about childbirth as self-reported before the onset of labor did not predispose to difficult labor at either hospital. Short height and heavy body mass index predisposed to difficult labor. Further work is needed to elucidate psychosocial factors predisposing to difficult labor.