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Setting: In Canada's federated healthcare system, 13 provincial and territorial jurisdictions have independent responsibility to collect data to inform health policies. During the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2023), national and regional sero-surveys mostly drew upon existing infrastructure to quickly test specimens and collect data but required cross-jurisdiction coordination and communication., Intervention: There were 4 national and 7 regional general population SARS-CoV-2 sero-surveys. Survey methodologies varied by participant selection approaches, assay choices, and reporting structures. We analyzed Canadian pandemic sero-surveillance initiatives to identify key learnings to inform future pandemic planning., Outcomes: Over a million samples were tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies from 2020 to 2023 but siloed in 11 distinct datasets. Most national sero-surveys had insufficient sample size to estimate regional prevalence; differences in methodology hampered cross-regional comparisons of regional sero-surveys. Only four sero-surveys included questionnaires. Sero-surveys were not directly comparable due to different assays, sampling methodologies, and time-frames. Linkage to health records occurred in three provinces only. Dried blood spots permitted sample collection in remote populations and during stay-at-home orders., Implications: To provide timely, high-quality information for public health decision-making, routine sero-surveillance systems must be adaptable, flexible, and scalable. National capability planning should include consortiums for assay design and validation, defined mechanisms to improve test capacity, base documents for data linkage and material transfer across jurisdictions, and mechanisms for real-time communication of data. Lessons learned will inform incorporation of a robust sero-survey program into routine surveillance with strategic sampling and capacity to adapt and scale rapidly as a part of a comprehensive national pandemic response plan., (© 2024. The Author(s) under exclusive license to The Canadian Public Health Association.)

Background: During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of reported cases of COVID-19 among Canadians was under 6%. Although high vaccine coverage was achieved in Canada by fall 2021, the Omicron variant caused unprecedented numbers of infections, overwhelming testing capacity and making it difficult to quantify the trajectory of population immunity., Methods: Using a time-series approach and data from more than 900 000 samples collected by 7 research studies collaborating with the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF), we estimated trends in SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence owing to infection and vaccination for the Canadian population over 3 intervals: prevaccination (March to November 2020), vaccine roll-out (December 2020 to November 2021), and the arrival of the Omicron variant (December 2021 to March 2023). We also estimated seroprevalence by geographical region and age., Results: By November 2021, 9.0% (95% credible interval [CrI] 7.3%-11%) of people in Canada had humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 from an infection. Seroprevalence increased rapidly after the arrival of the Omicron variant - by Mar. 15, 2023, 76% (95% CrI 74%-79%) of the population had detectable antibodies from infections. The rapid rise in infection-induced antibodies occurred across Canada and was most pronounced in younger age groups and in the Western provinces: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia., Interpretation: Data up to March 2023 indicate that most people in Canada had acquired antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 through natural infection and vaccination. However, given variations in population seropositivity by age and geography, the potential for waning antibody levels, and new variants that may escape immunity, public health policy and clinical decisions should be tailored to local patterns of population immunity., Competing Interests: Competing interests: Maureen Anderson reports receiving a Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation Establishment Grant, in support of the present manuscript. Lesley Behl reports receving funding from the CITF via a research grant paid to the University of Saskatchewan, in support of the present manuscript. Patrick Brown reports receiving grant support from the CITF. Carmen Charlton reports receiving grant funding from Merck and support for attending meetings or travel from AMMI Canada. Karen Colwill reports receiving an honorarium for a presentation to the Ontario Society of Clinical Chemists. Dr. Colwill is also the vice president of communications for the Canadian National Proteomics Network. Tim Evans reports receiving support for the present manuscript from the CITF, and holds the role of its executive director. Anne-Claude Gingras reports receiving support for automated equipment for ELISA, housed at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute (a facility supported by Canada Foundation for Innovation funding, the Ontario Government, Genome Canada and Ontario Genomics); support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for general lab operations; salary support as a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in functional proteomics; and from CITF and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) for assay calibration at Mount Sinai, all in support of the present manuscript. Dr. Gingras has had a contract with Providence Therapeutics (no consultation fees received), and has received grant funding from CIHR for several SARS-CoV-2 studies and from the Ontario Research Fund, outside of the present work. Dr. Gingras has served as the chair of the Institute Advisory Board of the CIHR Institute of Genetics and is a member and chair of the Human Health Therapeutics Division advisory board, National Research Council of Canada. Dr. Gingras is a member of the CITF working parties on testing and immunology, and is pillar lead of the Functional Genomics and Structure Function of CoVaRR-Net (all roles unpaid). Steven Drews reports receiving grants or contracts from CIHR and Alberta Innovates, consulting fees from Roche, support for attending meetings or travel from the Canadian Immunization Research Network and other support from Abbott. Jaspreet Jain reports receiving support from the CITF for the present manuscript. Prabhat Jha reports receiving grant support from the CITF for the Action to Beat Coronavirus study. Amanda Lang reports receiving funding from the CITF, in support of the present manuscript, for assay reagents and technologist salary. Dr. Lang has also received support from the CITF to attend a CITF meeting. Stephen Lee reports receiving funding from the CITF, in support of the present manuscript. Sheila O’Brien reports receiving payment (paid to Canadian Blood Services [CBS]) from the Government of Canada, and laboratory infrastructure from CBS, in support of the present manuscript. Chantale Pambrun reports receiving salary support from CBS, and study funding from PHAC. Olivia Oxlade is an employee of the CITF Secretariat. David Stephens reports receiving funds for a graduate student from the National Science and Engineering Research Council Emerging Infectious Disease Modelling, in support of the present manuscript. Hanna Swail reports receiving support from the CITF for the present manuscript. David Buckeridge reports receiving funding from PHAC, in support of the present manuscript. No other competing interests were declared., (© 2023 CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors.)

Background: Nutritional anemia is one of India's major public health problems. The prevalence of anemia ranges from 33% to 89% among pregnant women and is more than 60% among adolescent girls. Under the anemia prevention and control program of the Government of India, iron and folic acid tablets are distributed to pregnant women, but no such program exists for adolescent girls., Objective: To assess the status of anemia among pregnant women and adolescent girls from 16 districts of 11 states of India., Methods: A two-stage random sampling method was used to select 30 clusters on the basis of probability proportional to size. Anemia was diagnosed by estimating the hemoglobin concentration in the blood with the use of the indirect cyanmethemoglobin method., Results: The survey data showed that 84.9% of pregnant women (n = 6,923) were anemic (hemoglobin < 110 g/L); 13.1% had severe anemia (hemoglobin < 70 g/L), and 60.1% had moderate anemia (hemoglobin > or = 70 to 100 g/L). Among adolescent girls (n = 4,337)from 16 districts, the overall prevalence of anemia (defined as hemoglobin < 120 g/L) was 90.1%, with 7.1% having severe anemia (hemoglobin < 70 g/L)., Conclusions: Any intervention strategy for this population must address not only the problem of iron deficiency, but also deficiencies of other micronutrients, such as B12 and folic acid and other possible causal factors.

The present study represents a content analysis of 1,133 articles published between 1977 and 1998 in Child Abuse and Neglect, Child Maltreatment, and Journal of Child Sexual Abuse was performed. Although there were indications of increased attention to ethnicity in child maltreatment research published between 1977 and 1998, the improvements were modest. Of the 1,133 articles examined, 6.7% focused on ethnicity. The percentage of studies that provided information on the ethnic composition of samples increased across time; however, only half of the studies published in the most recent years examined (1995-1998) reported information on the ethnicity of the participants. Although the percentage of articles that used ethnicity in analyses or as a control variable increased across time, three quarters of the articles published in the most recent years examined (1995-1998) did not include ethnicity in their analyses or design.

Objective: The present study examined the extent to which parental belief in the value of corporal punishment moderates the association between level of parenting stress and physical child abuse potential. Based on existing theory, it was expected that levels of parenting stress would be positively associated with physical child abuse potential among parents who reported high levels of belief in the value of corporal punishment., Method: Forty-one parents (25 general population and 16 at-risk parents) were assessed for belief in the value of corporal punishment, level of parenting stress, and physical child abuse potential using self-report measures. After removal of respondents due to response distortion or missing data, the final sample consisted of 31 parents with valid and complete protocols. Based on their responses on the study measures, respondents were categorized as either high or low on belief in corporal punishment and parenting stress., Results: Level of parenting stress was positively associated with physical child abuse potential. As expected, the interaction of parenting stress and belief in the value of corporal punishment was significant. Level of parenting stress was positively associated with physical child abuse potential among parents who reported high levels of belief in the value of corporal punishment. In contrast, level of parenting stress was not associated with physical child abuse potential among parents who reported low belief in the value of corporal punishment., Conclusions: The present findings are consistent social information processing and stress and coping models of the etiology of physical child abuse, and underscore the importance of considering both parental cognitions and levels of parenting stress in assessing potential for physical child abuse.