Towards a Healthier Canada – Health Inequalities Data Table

Health inequalities are differences in health between individuals or population groups. In addition to reporting on indicators measured among children overall, reporting on health inequalities reveals how some children are experiencing better or worse outcomes in achieving healthy weights, physical activity, healthy eating and healthy environments than others.

The measures in the following table come from the Health Inequalities Data Tool - a joint initiative of the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Pan-Canadian Public Health Network, Statistics Canada and the Canadian Institute of Health Information. The objective of this pan-Canadian resource is to make available data on health inequalities experienced by a comprehensive range of population groups in Canada, including those presented in the table below. For more information about the Data Tool, please visit: Health Inequalities Data Tool.

Health Inequalities Data Table
Topic - Indicator Population GroupsEndnote 1 Population Sub-groups Multi-year Prevalence (%) Confidence intervals

Indicator/measure definitions:

Footnote 1

Obesity prevalence – Body mass index (BMI) score equal to 30.0 or above, based on measured height and weight, population aged 6-17 years, Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS; 2009-2013)

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Footnote 2

Physical activity, active or moderately active – Respondents classified as "active" or "moderately active", based on their responses to questions about the frequency, nature and duration of their participation in leisure time physical activity, population aged 12-17 years, Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS; 2010-2013)

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Footnote 3

Fruit/ vegetable consumption, 5 or more servings per day – Respondents who reported consuming fruits and vegetables 5 times or more per day, population aged 12-17 years, CCHS (2010-2013)

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Footnote 4

Breastfeeding, exclusive – Women aged 18-55 years who breastfed their child exclusively for at least the first 6 months of life (the child received only breast milk, without any additional liquid or solid food), CCHS (2009-2012)

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Footnote 5

Breastfeeding, initiation – Women aged 18-55 years, who breastfed or tried to breastfeed their last child (including short duration), CCHS (2009-2012)

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Footnote 6

Food insecurity, moderate or severe – Proportion of children aged 12-17 years living in households with severe or moderate food insecurity, derived from reported income-related difficulties accessing or utilizing food that influence the quantity or quality of food consumed, CCHS (2009-2012)

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Notes:

Endnote 1

Results are not directly comparable across population groups.

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Endnote 2

Cells with an (E) notation should be interpreted with caution, as the measure itself or at least one of the components used to calculate the value has a coefficient of variation between 16.6% to 33.3%.

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Endnote 3

To align with OCAP® principles, the Health Inequalities Data Tool does not include data from the First Nations Regional Health Survey (RHS), which is the leading source of health data for First Nations people living on reserve. As a result, data on First Nations people living on-reserve are not included in this table. Efforts are being made to work with the First Nations Information Governance Centre to include information on this population sub-group in the 2019 progress report.

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Endnote 4

Obesity prevalence by Indigenous populations/visible minority status: for this indicator, due to the small sample size of the data source (CHMS), children were grouped into three broad sub-group categories large enough to support data disaggregation: Indigenous populations, Visible minority, and Not a visible minority. However, each of these population sub-groups contain high levels of internal heterogeneity.  Consequently, while the observed differences in obesity prevalence between these sub-groups may signal real inequalities, the data should be interpreted with caution.

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Endnote 5

Cells with a dash (-) notation indicate that values have been suppressed because the measure itself or at least one of the components used to calculate the value has a coefficient of variation greater than 33.3%, a small numerator (<10), small denominator (<20), or empty age-standardization groups.

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Healthy Weights – Obesity prevalenceFootnote i Income (household) Lowest income  15.1 (E)Endnote 2 8.0-22.2
Middle income 14.4 11.4-17.3
Highest income 9.8 7.8-11.8
Education (household) High school graduate or less 15.5 10.3-20.7
Some post-secondary education or more 11.5 9.8-13.2
Indigenous populations / visible minority statusEndnote 4 First Nations people living off reserveEndnote 3 / Inuit / Métis 18.2 (E) 7.1-29.2
Visible minority 12.1 9.3-15.0
Not a visible minority 11.7 9.8-13.6
Physical Activity – Physical activity, active or moderately activeFootnote ii Income (household) Q1 (lowest) 69.5 67.2-71.8
Q5 (highest) 79.6 77.6 - 81.7
First Nations off reserve / Inuit / Métis populations First Nations people living off reserve 69.7 65.1 - 74.3
Inuit 68.2 57.1 - 79.4
Métis 75.6 70.1 - 81.1
Non-Indigenous 72.9 71.8 - 73.9
Cultural / racial background Arab / West Asian 69.6 61.9 - 77.3
Black 72.0 64.8 - 79.2
East / Southeast Asian 62.8 58.2 - 67.5
Latin American 57.8 48.0 - 67.7
South Asian 70.5 65.4 - 75.7
White 74.6 73.5 - 75.6
Healthy Eating –
Fruit/ vegetable consumption, 5 or more servings per dayFootnote iii		 Income (household) Q1 (lowest) 41.7 39.1 - 44.3
Q5 (highest) 53.0 50.5 - 55.6
First Nations off reserve / Inuit / Métis populations First Nations people living off reserve 37.2 32.1 - 42.3
Inuit 30.9 (E) 19.4 - 42.4
Métis 39.1 32.9 - 45.2
Non-Indigenous 46.5 45.3 - 47.7
Cultural / racial background Arab / West Asian 52.8 44.3 - 61.3
Black 49.3 42.0 - 56.6
East / Southeast Asian 35.2 30.7 - 39.8
Latin American 47.1 36.5 - 57.7
South Asian 42.5 36.7 - 48.3
White 47.9 46.7 - 49.2
Healthy  Eating - Breastfeeding, exclusiveFootnote iv Income (household) Q1 (lowest) 24.9 21.4 - 28.5
Q5 (highest) 31.5 28.1 - 34.9
First Nations off reserve / Inuit / Métis populations First Nations people living off reserve 17.7 (E) 11.7 - 23.7
Inuit -Endnote 5 -
Métis 20.9 (E) 13.5 - 28.2
Other than First Nations / Inuit / Métis 28.6 27.1 - 30.1
Cultural / racial background Arab / West Asian 38.1 26.8 - 49.4
Black 21.0 14.6 - 27.4
East / Southeast Asian 29.9 24.6 - 35.1
Latin American 22.9 (E) 12.7 - 33.0
South Asian 31.2  (E) 24.7 - 37.7
White 28.2 26.5 - 29.9
Healthy  Eating - Breastfeeding, initiationFootnote v Income (household) Q1 (lowest) 82.7 79.8 - 85.6
Q5 (highest) 91.5 89.6 - 93.5
First Nations off reserve / Inuit / Métis populations First Nations people living off reserve 78.6 67.8 - 89.3
Inuit 74.7 61.4 - 87.9
Métis 75.6 66.1 - 85.1
Other than First Nations / Inuit / Métis 89.5 88.6 - 90.4
Cultural / racial background Arab / West Asian 92.5 86.2 - 98.7
Black 94.5 91.0 - 98.0
East / Southeast Asian 92.4 88.8 - 96.0
Latin American 93.0 86.1 - 99.9
South Asian 94.9 92.1 - 97.6
White 88.1 87.1 - 89.2
Supportive Environments – Food insecurity, moderate or severeFootnote vi Income (household) Q1 (lowest income) 27.2 24.8 - 29.6
Q5 (highest income) 1.1 (E) 0.6 - 1.6
First Nations off reserve / Inuit / Métis populations First Nation people living off -reserve 27.0 22.6 - 31.5
Inuit 33.6 23.5 - 43.6
Métis 13.6 9.7 - 17.4
Non-Indigenous 9.5 8.8 - 10.2
Cultural / racial background Arab / West Asian 18.3 (E) 11.5 - 25.1
Black 25.6 18.6 - 32.5
East / Southeast Asian 7.4 5.2 - 9.6
Latin American 18.1 (E) 9.8 - 26.3
South Asian 9.2 (E) 5.5 - 12.8
White 8.4 7.7 - 9.1