Variable | Description (if applicable) & categories |
---|---|
Health care utilization | |
Family Physician | Self-reported use obtained from the question: “(In the past 12 months) Have you seen or talked to a family doctor or general practitioner about your physical, emotional or mental health?”. This included respondents with “only” use of a family physician (i.e. no use of a chiropractor or physiotherapist) |
Chiropractor | Self-reported use obtained from the question: “(In the past 12 months) Have you seen or talked to a chiropractor about your physical, emotional or mental health?” This included respondents with “any” use of a family chiropractor (i.e. could also report use of a family physician or physiotherapist). |
Physiotherapist | Self-reported use obtained from the question: “(In the past 12 months) Have you seen or talked to a physiotherapist about your physical, emotional or mental health?” This included respondents with “any” use of a physiotherapist (i.e. could also report use of a family physician or chiropractor). |
Socio-demographic characteristics | |
Age | 18–34 yrs.; 35-49 yrs.; 50-64 yrs.; ≥ 65 yrs. Categories based on quartiles and clinical relevance |
Sex | Male; female |
Education | Less than secondary; secondary graduation; some post-secondary; post-secondary graduation |
Income | A StatsCan-derived variable addressing income adequacy. Quintile of adjusted ratio of total household income to the low income cut-off corresponding to household and community size. This variable was unavailable for some respondents, for example, in cases where the person most knowledgeable about the household could not be identified. |
Residence | A StatsCan-derived variable. “Urban” residence includes communities with populations ≥10,000 people. “Rural” communities are disaggregated into sub-groups or Metropolitan Influenced Zones (MIZ) based on the size of commuting flows to any larger urban centre [41]. |
Ethnicity | Caucasian; Aboriginal (i.e. First Nation, Métis or Inuit); other |
Marital status | Single; married or common law; widowed or separated or divorced |
Immigration status | Canadian-born; immigrant |
Body Mass Index (BMI) | Derived from self-reported height and weight. Underweight & Normal (< 25 kg/m2); Overweight (25–29.9 kg/m2); Obese (≥ 30 kg/m2) [42] |
Lifestyle characteristics | |
Smoking status | Never smoked; former smoker; current smoker |
Physical activity | A StatsCan derived variable combining leisure time and transportation physical activity based on estimated total daily energy expenditure variables (kcal/kg/day): active; moderately active; inactive |
Health characteristics | |
Number of other co-morbidities/chronic conditions | Includes “long-term conditions” which are expected to last or have already lasted 6 months or more and that have been diagnosed by a health professional. No other chronic conditions (other than CBD); 1or 2 chronic conditions (other than CBD); 3 or more chronic conditions (other than CBD) |
HUI Pain/Function | Health Utility Index (HUI) variable [43]. Considers whether pain prevents person from performing activities of daily living. 5 categories: no pain or discomfort; pain prevents no activities; pain prevents a few activities; pain prevents some activities; pain prevents most activities |
Self-rated stress | Ability to handle day-to-day demands: not at all/not very; a bit; quite a bit/extremely* |
Self-rated overall health | Indicates the respondent’s health status based on his/her own judgement or his/her proxy: excellent/very good; good; fair/poora |