Resources/Related Sites

Disclaimer
These documents and links are provided for your interest and background reading. Inclusion on this site does not imply endorsement of them by Health Canada.

Note: Some of the following documents are not currently available electronically. Ordering information is given if available.

Determinants

The Social Determinants of Health: An Overview of the Implications for Policy and the Role of the Health Sector

• overview paper
• income inequality
• social inclusion and exclusion
• employment and job security
• working conditions
• contribution of the social economy
• early childhood education and care
• food security
• housing
• education

Resilient Children of Parents Affected by a Dependency (2004)
In this paper, the authors review studies which focus on current knowledge of resilience, with an emphasis on promotion and intervention programs and research activities. This paper presents valuable information for developing promotion and prevention strategies and treatment approaches to better address substance use and abuse issues, and identifies potential research avenues for the National Research Agenda.

Improving the Health of Canadians (2004)
Improving the Health of Canadians focuses on why some Canadians are healthy and others are not; and underscores some of the choices communities face in creating more equal opportunities for good health.

Social Determinants of Health: The Solid Facts (2003)
This second edition identifies evidence of social determinants of health to promote debate and action.

Social Disparities and Involvement in Physical Activity: Shaping the Policy Agenda in Healthy Living to Successfully Influence Population Health
by Lise Gauvin, Ph.D.,GRIS (Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire en santé -- Interdisciplinary Research Group on Health), Université de Montréal

How our Programs Affect Population Health Determinants: A Workbook for Better Planning and Accountability (2003)
This workbook assists community programs, funders and other services to know more about how their health promotion activities contribute to change in population health determinants.

Social Capital as a Health Determinant: How is it Defined? Working Paper Series, Health Canada, 2002 (2003)
This report is a summary of social capital research and attempts to clarify the place of social capital among the social determinants of health. The companion report, Social Capital as a Health Determinant How is it Measured? focusses on the methodological aspects of social capital research.

Economic Burden of Illness in Canada (EBIC)
EBIC provides valuable information that will contribute to a better understanding of the cost illness in Canada and its impact on the decision-making process of health policy and programs. Consult the web component EBIC On-Line at http://ebic-femc.hc-sc.gc.ca

Assessing the Health of Children in Manitoba: A Population-Based Study (2001)
This report pays close attention to the role that income and income-related factors might play in child health. 

An Environmental Scan of Research Transfer Strategies (2001)
Represents a valuable tool kit in applying research knowledge to policies affecting the health and well-being of Canadians.

Framework for Women-Centred Health (2001)
Consists of 12 elements that, taken together, provide tools and strategies to improve responses to the health needs of individual women and specific populations of women.

Health Policy Research Bulletin vol. 1, no1 (2001)
Presents a series of articles on the implications of aging for the health care system in light of currently available evidence and identifies areas where further research is needed.

Health Indicators, Volume 2001, No. 1 (2001)
This Statistics Canada document contains highlights and data tables for a number of health status and non-medical determinants indicators organized by sex, age and geography.

Health Reports:  How Healthy Are Canadians, Vol. 12, No. 3 (2001)
This special issue of Health Reports presents a wide array of indicators examining the health differences between Canadian men and women.

Indicators of Quality of Life in Canada: A Citizens' Prototype (2001)
Includes a prototype set of national indicators to track Canada's progress in quality of life, as defined by citizens.

"International Perspectives on Health Inequalities and Policy" British Medical Journal; 322 (2001)
Provides an overview of the current debates around inequity, inequalities, poverty, and health, drawing together current international understandings of the problem.

Population Health and Child Development: A View from Canada. 
Hertzman, C.  In J. Auerbach & B. Krimgold (eds), Income, Socioeconomic Status, and Health: Exploring the Relationships.  Washington DC: National Policy Association. (2001)

"Psychosocial and Material Pathways in the Relation Between Income and Health" British Medical Journal; 322 (2001)
Is a response to Lynch et al "Income inequality and mortality" emphasizing the importance of psychosocial pathways.

Social Capital: Literature Review (2001)
This report reviews the literature on social capital focusing on issues of definition, measurement, and policy implications.

Building a Healthy Future (2000)
Provides health intermediaries and the general public with key messages from Toward a Healthy Future: Second Report on the Health of Canadians.

An Annotated Bibliography on Indicators for the Determinants of Health (2000)
An overview of some of the key documents that are shaping the measurement of outcomes and impacts related to determinants. Creates a menu of indicators that are currently being used.

Developmental Health and the Wealth of Nations: Social, Biological, and Educational Dynamics (2000)
Outlines a conceptual framework for the understanding of human development in the modern world and presents detailed discussions of the key evidence.

Healthy Lifestyle: Strengthening the Effectiveness of Lifestyle Approaches to Improve Health (2000)
Shows that lifestyle is interdependent with one's social environment, and that interventions should address the complexity and influence of community factors on individual health. 
Also see: Key Points and Discussion Questions

The Improving the Quality of Life of Canadian Seniors Project (2000)
This report presents in detail what seniors said about nine key areas in which government decisions are being made that affect their quality of life.

"Income Inequality and mortality" British Medical Journal; 320 (2000)
Discusses three associations between income inequality and health: the individual income interpretation, the psychosocial environment interpretation, and the neo-material interpretation.

Nova Scotia Child Poverty Report Card 2006 (2000)
This report examines child/family poverty statistics in the context of Nova Scotia's families.

The Opportunity of Adolescence: The Health Sector Contribution (2000)
Using the determinants of health framework, the paper describes the current health status for adolescents and identifies areas where certain youth have greater needs for information and support.

Reducing Health Inequalities: Implications for Interventions (2000)
Describes upstream and downstream policies. Be sure to look at Appendix A, a helpful schematic of the drivers of population health.

The Socioeconomic Gradient in Population Health: Explaining Health Inequalities (2000)
Explains key concepts with respect to the core dynamics of population health, the socioeconomic gradient, and biological mechanisms occurring in early childhood.

Canadian Research on Immigration and Health (1999)
This report is part of Health Canada's contribution to the Metropolis project and presents a scan of Canadian research on topics related to immigration health.

The Early Years Study (1999)
Investigates how government, communities and parents can positively affect every aspect of a young child's life for greater success in school, in their careers and in society.

Health and Wealth: How Socio-Economic Factors Affect Our Well-Being (1999)
This CCPA (Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives) book explains why all levels of government should address the socio-economic root causes of ill-health.

Healthy Development of Children and Youth: The Role of the Determinants of Health (1999)
Examines how various health determinants shape healthy child development, and discusses conditions and trends relevant to the health of Canadian children and youth.

Indicators that Count! Measuring Population Health at the Community Level
By Trevor Hancock, Ron Labonte and Rick Edwards. 
The full report is to be published by the Center for Health Promotion, University of Toronto and ParticipACTION. Abstracted version is available in Canadian Journal of Public Health, Nov/Dec, 1999, Vol 90-Supplement 1. (1999)

1st National Consensus Conference on Population Health Indicators (1999)
Provides a list of confirmed health indicators and their definitions, illustrative indicators for potential future development, and a health indicators framework.

Nutrition for Healthy Pregnancy: National Guidelines for the Childbearing Years (1999)
Nutrition and pregnancy are discussed in the context of health determinants. The guidelines are intended for health professionals who offer nutritional guidance to women.

Resilient Children of Parents Affected by Addiction
In this paper, the authors review studies which focus on current knowledge of resilience, with an emphasis on promotion and intervention programs and research activities. This paper presents valuable information for developing promotion and prevention strategies and treatment approaches to better address substance use and abuse issues, and identifies potential research avenues for the National Research Agenda.

Social Determinants of Health
By Micheal Marmot and Richard G. Wilkinson, Oxford U.P. 
This book shows that health is not just about individual behavior or exposure to risk, but that a population's social and economic structure shapes its health. (1999)

Toward a Healthy Future: Second Report on the Health of Canadians (1999)
Provides a picture of the most current information we have on the health of Canadians, and on the factors that influence our health.

Upstream and Downstream Approaches to Inequalities in Health (1999)
This paper concludes that we cannot hope to significantly reduce the burden of disease in societies unless we grapple with the upstream determinants of social inequalities.

Where is the Evidence? (1999)
Speaking Notes for Alan Nymark, Associate Deputy Minister of Health: National Health Policy in the 21st Century, 4th Annual HEALnet Conference Calgary, March 28, 1999.

How Does Literacy Affect the Health of Canadians? A profile paper (1998)
Touches upon some of the mechanisms by which literacy affects health, and suggests some of the ways in which the health field can respond.

Report on the Health of Canadians (1996)
Is intended to serve as a tool to help policy makers, health workers, and the public measure Canada's progress in achieving better overall population health. Also see: Toward A Healthy Future: Second Report on the Health of Canadians

Unhealthy Societies: The Afflictions of Inequality
By Richard Wilkinson.
Richard Wilkinson is an expert on social structure and the psychosocial determinants of population health and welfare. He is also the co-editor (with M. Marmot) of The Social Determinants of Health (Oxford U.P.1999); and (with I. Kawachi and B. Kennedy) of Income Inequality and Health; Vol. 1 of The Society and Population Health Reader. (New Press 1999). (1996)

Health Indicator Workbook: a tool for healthy communities (2nd Edition) 
By BC Ministry of Health, Victoria. (1995)

Strategies for Population Health - Investing in the Health of Canadians (1994)
Identifies broad population health strategies on which the provincial, territorial and federal governments could collaborate and achieve significant results.