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METHODS
Population Studied
The population studied in this
report included all children from birth to 19 years of
age, excluding:
- 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.
- 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.
For some indicators, 5 years of
data (1997/98 to 2001/02) were analyzed; for others 1
year of data was used (2001/02). Population counts for
the denominators were generally given as of December 31
of the year(s) used in the analysis. The denominators
came from the Research Registry in the Manitoba Population
Health Research Data Repository, which is described on
the Data Sources page.
Demographic information describing
the Manitoba child population used in this study include:
- Tables
showing child population numbers by age for Winnipeg
and non-Winnipeg, and numbers and percentages of children
by age groups and sex for the Winnipeg Neighourhood
Clusters and the RHA Districts.
- Tables
describing various socioeconomic characteristics of
the regions where the children live. These socioeconomic
characteristics are the variables used in the creation
of socioeconmic groups used in the graphs (see Data
Display below).
- Graphs
showing the average number of children per family for
Winnipeg and non-Winnipeg by SES Group.
Analyses
Details of specific variables and
methods used for this report are available under relevant
entries in the Glossary.
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Data
Display
Most of the child outcomes displayed
in this report are given as rates per 1000, and shown
across area of residence and socioeconomic status. Where
data permit, rates are given by 46 Regional
Health Authority (RHA) Districts for non-Winnipeg
children, and by 25 Winnipeg
Neighbourhood Clusters for Winnipeg children. Where
numbers are too small (and therefore rates unstable) to
permit display by these regions, rates are given by 10
RHAs and 12
Winnipeg Community Areas. These
areas indicate the place of residence of the child, rather
than where the child received health or social services,
or where the child went to school.
Regions of residence are ordered
consistently throughout the report. Ordering is based
on an index of socioeconomic status, with those areas
with high socioeconomic status shown at the top of the
graphs, and those areas with low socioeconomic status
shown at the bottom of the graphs. Note that all RHA District
graphs are first grouped by RHA and then ordered by socioeconomic
status.
The socioeconomic index used by
MCHP is known as the SocioEconomic
Factor Index (SEFI) and 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. We calculated SEFI scores for the 1146
dissemination areas (DAs) within Winnipeg and for the
1172 DAs outside of Winnipeg, using publicly available
data from the 2001 Census. We then calculated a SEFI score
for each of the 25 Winnipeg Neighbourhood Clusters 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 ease of presentation, for both Winnipeg
and non-Winnipeg areas, we divided the neighbourhoods
or districts 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
we end up with four SEFI Groups: Low SES (or most disadvantaged),
Low-Mid SES, Middle SES, and High SES.
As shown in the Winnipeg
map, the more disadvantaged areas (Low SES areas shown
in red on the map) tend to be found in the central part
of Winnipeg, with the most advantaged areas (High SES
areas in dark green on the map) on the outskirts of the
city. The Non-Winnipeg
map (RHA Districts) shows where each of these four
groups are located in non-Winnipeg areas of the province.
It is clear that the more disadvantaged (red) areas tend
to be in the northern parts of the province, with the
more advantaged areas in the south central parts of Manitoba.
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 in Winnipeg has
almost half of Winnipeg’s total population; and
the Middle SES category has just over half of
the non-Winnipeg population. Socioeconomic characteristics
for each neighbourhood area of Winnipeg and for each non-Winnipeg
RHA district can be found in the tables
above.
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