MANITOBA CHILD HEALTH ATLAS 2004
kids photo (120x80 px)
 
GLOSSARY

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


The Child Health Atlas Glossary provides information on standard MCHP glossary definitions, modifications to those standard definitions, and new definitions used. The glossary entries also provide links to related terms and concepts.
Absent
  For students who were supposed to write a standards exam, an outcome of "absent" was assigned when the students were absent on the day or days of the exam (for example, due to illness or medical condition).
  Related: Standards Tests
Adjusted Rates
  All rates comparing health indicators across regions or SEFI (SES) groups, where all children aged 0 to 19 years are included, have been adjusted, or age- and sex-standardized. This procedure mathematically removes the effects of different population structures that influence overall rates of use of health care.
  MCHP Glossary Definition
  Related: Rates and Standardizing
Age Calculations
  For health indicators in this report, age calculations differ for numerators and denominators. Age for the numerator is the age at the time of the claim date, hospital admission date, or initial drug prescription date. Age for the denominator is calculated as the age at the end of December of the year, e.g., for fiscal year 2001/02, Age = 2001- birth year.
Ambulatory Physician Visits
  Any contact between a patient and physician at one of the following locations: physician's office, outpatient or emergency department, clinic, Personal Care Home, the patient's home, or northern / remote nursing station. Unless specified, physician visits include consultative and non-consultative care. Contact with patients who are in hospital and for salaried physicians are not included.
  MCHP Glossary Definition
Apgar Scores
  Apgar scores measure the physiological well-being of newborn babies, and are recorded for virtually all births in hospital. A score of zero, one, or two is given for each of five vital signs that are assessed at one and five minutes after birth. These five scores are added up to give a total score between 0 and 10. The five vital signs are: appearance, pulse, reflex, muscle tone, and breathing pattern. Very low scores are associated with poor neurologic outcomes (21), whereas "borderline" scores are associated with decreased visual attentiveness in the first year of life, compared with "good" scores (22). For our analysis we considered scores of 9 or 10 at five minutes as “good”.
Avoidable Hospitalization for Immunizable and Preventable Infections
  MCHP Glossary Definition


up arrow Back to top
 

Band-Operated Schools
 

Band-operated schools are located in Manitoba, but are not part of the provincial education system. Rather, they are operated by the First Nations communities in which they are located. Enrollment data for band-operated schools is only partially reported to the provincial Education Information System (EIS). Therefore:

  • For the Standards Test analyses: An estimated number of students expected to be enrolled in band-operated schools was removed from the analysis. This was done because some students in the 18 year old cohort enrolled in band operated schools in 2001/02 who were not in EIS enrollment data would be misclassified as withdrawn.
  • For the High School Completion analyses: Students in band-operated schools were excluded. Some students could be enrolled in a non-band-operated school in Grade 9 and later transfer to a band-operated school, and could therefore be misclassified as withdrawn because they no longer appear in our data. However, when this issue was examined, only 111 students in our 1997/98 cohort (out of 15,821 students) transferred to a band-operated school in a later year.
  •   Related: EIS, Standards Tests, High School Completion
    Breastfeeding Initiation Rate
      MCHP Glossary Definition


    up arrow Back to top
     

    Child Care
      MCHP Glossary Definition
    Child Mortality Rate
      MCHP Glossary Definition
    Childhood Immunization Rate
      MCHP Glossary Definition
      Related: Immunization Schedule by Age
    Community Resources
      Community resources refers to the collection of databases that provide data on community-level factors that may influence child health. The community resource data in this report contain housing, crime, parks, child day care, library, and programs data.
      Related: Housing, Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Property, Green Spaces, Child Day Care, Story Time Library Programs, Programs
    Continuing Student
      A high school student who was still enrolled in school, but had not made it to S4 by the 5th year and did not have a graduation flag or 28+ credits. The credits earned were quite low for these students, for example, 14 out of the required 28 credits.
      Related: Graduation, Graduation Flag, High School Completion
    Crimes Against Persons
      Crime data were obtained from the Winnipeg Police Service, Crime Statistics Unit. Crimes against persons include the crimes of murder, attempted murder, sexual assault, other sexual offences, assault, kidnapping, abduction, and robbery.
      MCHP Concept Dictionary Entry
    Crimes Against Property
      Crime data were obtained from the Winnipeg Police Service, Crime Statistics Unit. Crimes against property include the crimes of arson, break and enter, theft, fraud, and mischief.
      MCHP Concept Dictionary Entry


    up arrow Back to top
     

    Data Suppression
      Data was suppressed in the graphs and data sheets when the cell count was five or fewer. When this occurred, an "s" replaced the value in the cell. An "s" also replaced cell values that could be used to calculate other suppressed cells.
      MCHP Glossary Definition
      Related: Rates and Standardizing
    Denominators
      Related: Rates and Standardizing
    Dissemination Area (DA)
      Dissemination Areas (DAs), and are the smallest standard geographical areas for which Canada Census data are reported. DAs are composed of one or more neighbouring blocks, with a population of 400 to 700 persons.
      Related:: Statistics Canada Website: Disseminations Area (DA)
    Drug Categories for Prescription Use Analysis
      The eight drug categories were: (1) Antibiotics, (2) Antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors), (3) Antipsychotics, (4) Anxiolytics, (5) Iron supplements, (6) Narcotic analgesics, (7) NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and other arthritis drugs, (8) Psychostimulants. See table for category definitions.
      Table of drug category definitions.


    up arrow Back to top
     

    E-Codes
      See: External Cause of Injury Codes
    Education Information System (EIS)
      Source of education data used in report. Data used for analyses of educational outcomes included enrolment information on all students from Kindergarten to Grade 12, course marks for senior students (Grades 9 (S1) through 12 (S4)), as well as scores for Language Arts and Math standards tests written in Grade 12 and Grade 3.
      Related: Standards Tests
    Effective Age of Houses
      Effective age of a residential dwelling usually refers to the year in which the dwelling was built. Occasionally, where major renovations, alterations and/or additions have altered the original dwelling to such an extent that the original year of construction no longer accurately reflects the dwelling’s age (i.e. fire, gut and refurbish), then the original year of dwelling construction has been modified to reflect these major renovations.
      Related: Housing
    Exclusions
      The following children were excluded from all analyses: 1) children whose postal codes were the same as the Public trustee offices. Because this would be a mailing address only, we could not determine where in the province these children lived. 2) Children who did not have Manitoba postal or municipal codes. These children were considered non-Manitoba residents. In addition to these exclusions, children whose postal codes were the same as the Winnipeg Child and Family Services office were excluded from regional analyses because we could not determine where these children actually lived. These children were not excluded from the Manitoba totals, however.
    Exempt
      Students were exempted from writing a standards exam for reasons such as: substantial modifications had to be made to the exam in order for the student to write it, or the student was an English as a Second Language student.
      Related: Standards Tests
    External Cause of Injury Codes (E-Codes)
      E-codes are used to define environmental events, circumstances and conditions as the cause of injury, poisoning, and other adverse effects related to injury hospitalizations and mortality. The ICD-9-CM E-code on the hospital claim may be in any one of the 16 diagnosis codes and the first one found going from 1 to 16 is used. The vital statistics record has ICD-9 E-codes listed in the cause of death. See table for the E-codes used in this report. Excluded from this list and from our definition of injuries are injuries resulting from misadventures during surgical or medical care, and adverse drug reactions.
      Table of E-Codes.
      MCHP Glossary Definition


    up arrow Back to top
     

    Failed
      For students who wrote a standards exam, an outcome of "failed" was assigned for a mark between 0 and 49.9%.
      Related: Standards Tests
    Fiscal Year (FY)
      For most businesses, health care institutions included, the fiscal year is defined as starting April 1 and ending the following year at March 31. For example, the 1997/98 fiscal year would be April 1, 1997 to March 31, 1998, inclusive, and may also be denoted as FY 1997.
      MCHP Glossary Definition


    up arrow Back to top
     

    Grade 2 or Lower
      Students who should have written a Grade 3 Standards Test according to their age (i.e., 8 years), but were enrolled in Grade 2 or below.
      Related: Standards Tests
    Graduation
      The presence of a graduation flag in the student record or 28 or more credits earned during high school.
      Related: Graduation Flag, High School Completion
    Graduation Flag
      We derived this variable (0/1) from the Year End Status field in the EIS files. The variable Graduation flag was set to '1' if the Year End Status field contained the values 099 (Graduated), 100 (Graduated with diploma), 101 (Graduated with Provincial diploma), or 102 (Graduated with mature student diploma). Graduation flag was set to '0' for any other value, or if the Year End Status field was empty.
      Related: Education Information System (EIS)
    Green Spaces
      MCHP Concept Dictionary Entry


    up arrow Back to top
     

    Healthy Baby Program
      A program run by the Province of Manitoba that offers financial help through prenatal benefits (monthly cheques) and offers social and educational support through programs in the community, throughout Manitoba.
      Related: Manitoba Government Website: Healthy Baby
    High Birth Weight Rate
      The number of live born babies (in calendar years 1997-2001) with a birth weight of more than 4000 grams divided by the total number of live born babies (in calendar years 1997-2001). Thirty liveborn babies with a newborn birth weight value of 9999 grams were excluded from analyses.
      MCHP Glossary Definition
    High School Completion
      High school completion analyses used a cohort of students enrolled in Grade 9 (S1) in 1997/98 and still living in Manitoba four or five years later (depending on how long they remained in the education system). We used their enrolment records to determine whether after five years they had: graduated ("Grad"); were in Grade 12 but not yet graduated ("Near Grad"); were still enrolled but after five years had not yet reached Grade 12 ("Continuing"), or; had not been enrolled for two consecutive years ("Withdrawn").
      Related: Graduation, Near Graduate, Continuing, Withdrawn
    Hospitalization Rates
      The number of hospital episodes in a given year(s) divided by the population as of December 31 of that year(s). With hospital episode rates, children hospitalized in one hospital and then transferred to a different hospital are counted only once.
      MCHP Glossary Definition
    Housing
      Housing data pertain to all residential dwellings, defined as single-family homes, side by sides, duplex, duplex conversion, triplex and apartment converted dwellings with 3 to 4 single-family units. Apartment blocks are not included. Housing data were obtained for 228 neighbourhoods in the city of Winnipeg from the City's Neighbourhood Housing Indicator Data report (October, 2000). Disclaimer: The City of Winnipeg and its employees make no representation or warranties and assume no liability or responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information nor for any loss or damage to persons or property directly or indirectly arising from the information in this document, including any negligence on the part of The City of Winnipeg or its employees.
      MCHP Concept Dictionary Entry
      Related: Effective Age of Houses, Median Selling Price of Houses, Rental Houses


    up arrow Back to top
     

    Immunization Rate
      See: Childhood Immunization Rate
    Immunization Schedule By Age
      MCHP Glossary Definition
      Related: Manitoba Health Website: Manitoba's Routine Childhood Immunization Schedule
    Income Quintile
      MCHP Glossary Definition
    Incomplete
      For students who wrote a standards exam, an outcome of "incomplete" was assigned when a mark was not able to be assigned to the exam (usually because the student only wrote a portion of the exam and was absent for the remainder).
      Related: Standards Tests
    Infant Mortality Rate
      The number of deaths among infants under one year of age (at December 31) per 1000 live births in a cohort of liveborn babies, excluding very low birth weight babies (< 500 g) and those with very short gestations (< 20 weeks), who are more likely to die. This rate is for a given period of time (calendar years 1997-2001). Infant mortality is considered a useful indicator of the level of health within a community.
      MCHP Glossary Definition
    Injury Hospitalizations
      Hospitalizations lasting one day or longer that resulted from an injury as indicated by the presence of one of the ICD-9-CM E-Codes listed in the table on the hospital record. Newborn hospitalizations with E-Codes are excluded, as are brain deaths. Because separations were counted rather than episodes of care, children who were hospitalized in one hospital and then transferred to a different hospital were counted twice. About 5½% of the injury hospitalizations that occurred over the 5-year period involved a transfer.
      Table of E-Codes.
      MCHP Glossary Definition
    Injury Mortality
      For children aged 1 to 19, death due to injury, as defined by the presence of one of the ICD-9 E-Codes listed in the table on the vital statistics record.
      Table of E-Codes.
      MCHP Glossary Definition
    Injury Mortality Rates
      These rates are calculated by dividing the total number of injury deaths in a given year(s) by the population as of December 31 of the same year(s). Injury mortality rates for this report were calculated using five years of data, calendar years 1997 to 2001.
      MCHP Glossary Definition


    up arrow Back to top
     

    Low Birth Weight Rate
      The number of live born babies (in calendar years 1997-2001) with a birth weight of less than 2500 grams divided by the total number of live born babies (in calendar years 1997-2001). Analyses of low birth weight infants included 7 liveborn infants with a newborn birth weight value of less than 100 grams.
      MCHP Glossary Definition
    Lower Respiratory Tract Infection
      The diagnosis-based definition for five years of age and older is at least one diagnosis over one year for lower respiratory tract infection (ICD-9-CM=011: Pulmonary tuberculosis, 012: Other respiratory tuberculosis, 466: Acute bronchitis and bronchiolitis, 480: Viral pneumonia, 481: Pneumococcal pneumonia [Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumonia], 482: Other bacterial pneumonia, 483: Pneumonia due to other specified organism, 484: Pneumonia in infectious diseases classified elsewhere, 485: Bronchopneumonia, organism unspecified, 486: Pneumonia, organism unspecified, 487: Influenza, 490: Bronchitis, not specified as acute or chronic, 491: Chronic bronchitis). The definition for age less than five years of age is at least one diagnosis over one year for lower respiratory tract infection, as defined above, or asthma (ICD-9-CM=493: Asthma). The diagnoses recorded in the first diagnostic field of the hospitalization abstract was used.
      MCHP Glossary Definition


    up arrow Back to top
     

    Maternal Serum Screening Programme
      This programme is funded by the province and offers all pregnant women in Manitoba a blood test that screens for chromosome abnormalities or birth defects.
      Related: Triple Test, Website for Manitoba Maternal Serum Screening Programme.
    Median Selling Price of Houses
      The Median Selling Price indicator is the market-selling price of properties that were sold in the open market by a willing seller to a willing buyer. These arms-length transactions include sales that were offered for a reasonable period of time, whether it was through the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), exclusive listing, or by private offering. These sales would also be expected to take place between unrelated people. The median selling price was based on actual sales, and the sales were not selected using statistical sampling methods to ensure a representative sample for the various property types within each neighbourhood.
      Related: Housing


    up arrow Back to top
     

    Near Graduate
      A high school student who was in S4 in the 4th or 5th year, but did not have a graduation flag or 28+ credits.
      Related: Graduation, High School Completion
    Neighbourhood Cluster (NC)
      MCHP Glossary Definition
    Non-Winnipeg
      MCHP Glossary Definition
    Numerators
      See: Rates and Starndardizing


    up arrow Back to top
     

    Parks
      See: Green Spaces
    Passed
      For students who wrote a standards exam, an outcome of "passed" was assigned for a mark of 50% or higher.
      Related: Standards Tests
    Physician Visits
      See: Ambulatory Physician Visits
    Population
      Table of population information for RHA Districts and Winnipeg NCs.
    Programs
      The programs data include social programs, such as counseling programs and youth drop-ins, as well as recreation programs, such as physical activity and creative arts programs.
      MCHP Concept Dictionary Entry


    up arrow Back to top
     

    Rates and Standardizing
      Rates were standardized for age and sex using the direct method of standardization. For most of the analyses in this report, the age groups used for standardization were: 0, 1-4, 5-9, 10-14, and 15-19 years. One-year rates were based on data from the 2001/02 fiscal year and five-year rates were based on data from the 97/98 – 2001/02 fiscal years. The 1996 population structure (December) was the population to which rates were standardized. When numerators were less than 5 cases, rates were suppressed due to instability.
      MCHP Glossary Definition
      Related: Adjusted Rates
    Reading Recovery
      Reading Recovery is a widely used program for early literacy in Manitoba schools, aimed at Grade 1 students having some difficulty with learning to read. This program is intensive and requires a teacher to work one-on-one or with small groups of children for several hours each week. There is a pre-test to enable teachers to pick the children with the greatest need for the program.
    Regional Health Authority (RHA)
      The province of Manitoba is divided into 11 Regional Health Authorities, in which 2 of the RHAs are cities (Brandon and Winnipeg).
      MCHP Glossary Definition
      Related: Regional Health Authority Districts, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority
    Regional Health Authority Districts
      RHA Districts further sub-divide RHAs into distinct areas for analysis. RHA District boundaries are determined by the individual RHAs.
      MCHP Glossary Definition
      Related: Regional Health Authority
    Rental Houses
      Rental houses are non-owner occupied residential dwellings including: single family homes, side by sides, duplex, duplex conversion, triplex, and apartment-converted dwellings with 3 to 4 single family units. Apartment blocks, agricultural and government properties are not included.
      Related: Housing
    Retention
      Students who were enrolled in the same grade for two consecutive years, and who did not have an aberrant pattern of promotion any other year (for example, retention one year and promotion of two grades the next, or a progression backwards).
    Retention Rates
      The percentage of students retained from one year to the next. The denominator includes all students who were enrolled in grade the first year except for students with aberrant patterns of promotion (for example, a retention one year and a promotion of two grades the next, or a progression backwards), because of the probability that these patterns were errors.


    up arrow Back to top
     

    S3 or Lower
      Students who should have written an S4 Standards Test according to their age (i.e., 18 years), but were enrolled in S3 or below.
      Related: Standards Tests
    School Changes
      The number of times a students changed schools that was not part of an expected progression through the grades. Expected progressions were identified when a student reached the highest grade of a school and the next year transferred to a different school.
    SEFI (Socioeconomic Factor Index)
      See: Socioeconomic Status (SES)
    Socioeconomic Status (SES)
      Socioeconomic status (SES) refers to social and economic circumstances which are used to denote a ranking of individuals or groups in society. For this report, SES was assigned based on an index known as the SocioEconomic Factor Index (SEFI), which provides an area-level measure of SES. The SEFI combines those socioeconomic characteristics most strongly related to health outcomes into a single score (for a more detailed description, see the Martens, Frohlich, Carriere, Derksen and Brownell article "Embedding Child Health Within a Framework of Regional Health [p. S15-20] in the Canadian Journal of Public Health, Supplement 2, 2002). These characteristics include unemployment, high school completion, lone parent households, and female workforce participation. SEFI was calculated for the 1146 dissemination areas (DAs) within Winnipeg and for the 1172 DAs outside of Winnipeg, using publicly available data from the 2001 Census. A SEFI score for each of the 25 Winnipeg Neighbourhood Clusters was then calculated using a weighted average of the scores for each DA in that neighbourhood. Likewise, a SEFI score was calculated for each RHA District using a weighted average of the scores for each DA in that district. For regional graphs in this report, regions are ordered from most advantaged to least advantaged SES (see Data Display). For ease of presentation, for both Winnipeg and non-Winnipeg areas, neighbourhoods or districts were divided into four groups based on how different they were from the average score for all neighbourhoods or districts. Thus for both Winnipeg and non-Winnipeg areas there are four SEFI (or SES) Groups: Low SES (or most disadvantaged), Low-Mid SES, Middle SES, and High SES. It should be noted that the total number of people and the total number of children residing in these SES groups is not equal: The Middle SES category has almost half of Winnipeg's total population and just over half of the non-Winnipeg population.
      Related: Socioeconomic Factor Index (SEFI), Dissemination Area (DA)
    Socioeconomic Factor Index (SEFI)
      Table of SEFI variable values for RHA Districts and Winnipeg NCs.
      MCHP Glossary Definition
      Related: Socioeconomic Status (SES)
    Standards Tests
      Tests written by students in Manitoba in certain grades. For Grade 12 students, Manitoba has had a provincial testing system in place since 1993, with the tests counting for 30% of students' final course mark. The current 'Standards Tests' are curriculum-based and mandatory for all students, with adaptations available for many special needs students (and exemptions for individual students as required). The annual Standards Tests are 'locally marked' by the school divisions, and assess Mathematics and Language Arts in separate tests. Data for Grade 3 students came from the 1998/99 'Provincial Examinations' in Language Arts. Standardized Grade 3 testing was discontinued after that year.
      Related: Passed, Failed, Incomplete, Absent, Exempt, Grade 2 or Lower, S3 or Lower, Withdrawn
    Statistical Testing of Rates
      We have implemented a Bonferroni correction factor using 99% confidence intervals when testing for statistical significance between rates. The Bonferroni is a statistical method that adjusts the significance level when multiple comparisons are made.
    Story Time Library Programs
      Story Time a half-hour program held at Winnipeg Public Library branches for children 3 to 5 years of age. Books are presented in creative ways, such as with action rhymes or finger plays, and children are encouraged to check out library books to take home to read.
      Related: Winnipeg Public Library Newsletters contain information on Story Time and other programs.


    up arrow Back to top
     

    Teen Birth Rate
      The number of live births in an area per 1000 teens, defined as the midyear female population aged 12-19 in the same area for the years 1997-2001.
    Teen Pregnancy Rate
      The ratio of pregnancies in teenagers in a given time period (including live births, stillbirths, abortions, and ectopic pregnancies), to the total female population of the same age, mid-period. Age categories used in this report included 12-19, 15-19, 18-19, 12-17, and 15-17 years.
      MCHP Glossary Definition
    Triple Test
      The triple test is a blood test that is offered to all pregnant women in Manitoba through the Manitoba Maternal Serum Screening Programme. The test measures three components in the mother’s blood that are made by the baby or the placenta, and the test screens for chromosome abnormalities or birth defects.


    up arrow Back to top
     

    Winnipeg Community Area (CA)
      MCHP Glossary Definition
    Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA)
      MCHP Glossary Definition
      Related: Winnipeg Community Area (CA)
    Withdrawn
      A high school student who was not enrolled for last two years (2000/01 and 01/02).
      Related: Graduation, High School Completion, Standards Tests


    up arrow Back to top
     

    Key Findings:
    Education

    Education summary report

    Winnipeg
    right arrow Report
    (20-page pdf)
    right arrow Figures from Report *
    right arrow Summary

    Non-Winnipeg
    right arrow Rural and Northern Health Care Meeting Presentation *
     
    * PowerPoint file can be downloaded for notes.

    © 2004 University of Manitoba


    Last modified on Tuesday, 05-Jul-2005 22:37:00 CDT