The 2000 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) asks: “People living in Canada come from many different cultural and racial backgrounds. Are you [an]…Aboriginal [person] of North America?” Those responding “yes” to this question are classified as Aboriginal people living off-reserve.
The CCHS, one of our main data sources, unfortunately does not survey Aboriginal people living on Indian reserves.i
The Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) is a cross-sectional population survey. The CCHS Cycle 1.1 was conducted from 2000 to 2001 for Canadians over the age of 12 years. This survey is repeated every few years, and the latest version (Cycle 3.1) was collected in 2005. Most of the analyses ACREU carried out using CCHS data were for Canadians 15 years of age and older.
The survey asked questions about health status, health care utilization and determinants of health. The CCHS had a large sample size and is representative of all Canadians with the exception of those living on Indian Reserves, Crown lands, in institutions and in a few extremely remote areas. vii
The 2000 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) defined long-term (chronic) conditions as those that have lasted or are expected to last 6 months or more and that had been diagnosed by a health professional.
These chronic conditions included food allergies, any other allergies, asthma, fibromyalgia, arthritis or rheumatism (excluding fibromyalgia), back problems (excluding fibromyalgia and arthritis), high blood pressure, migraine headaches, chronic bronchitis, emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (asked to those aged 30+), diabetes, epilepsy, heart disease, cancer, stomach or intestinal ulcers, effects of a stroke, urinary incontinence, bowel disorder such as Crohn's Disease or colitis, Alzheimer's Disease or any other dementia (asked to those aged 18+), cataracts (asked to those aged 18+), glaucoma (asked to those aged 18+), thyroid condition, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivities, any other long term condition.viii