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Obtain commonly used neighbourhood-level socioeconomic status (SES) variables

neighbourhood_ses.Rd

The neighbourhood_ses() function derives neighbourhood-level SES variables for a given encounter based on the dissemination area they reside in. All variables returned by this function are based on Statistics Canada Census data and the Ontario Marginalization Index (ON-Marg; see below for details).

For database versions since drm_cleandb_v3 / H4H_template_v4 users can choose between 2016 vs. 2021 census/ON-Marg data. For earlier versions, only 2016 census data are available. Note that the names of some output variables vary by census year.

Usage

neighbourhood_ses(dbcon, cohort, census_year)

neighborhood_ses(dbcon, cohort, census_year)

Arguments

dbcon

(DBIConnection)
A database connection to any GEMINI database.

cohort

(data.table | data.frame)
Table with all relevant encounters of interest, where each row corresponds to a single encounter. Must contain GEMINI Encounter ID (genc_id).

census_year

(numeric | character)
Statistics Canada census year. Only 2016 or 2021 are valid inputs.

Value

(data.frame | data.table)
This function returns a data.table where each row corresponds to a genc_id from the user-provided cohort input, together with the following columns:

  • The user-provided census year: census_year (2016 or 2021)

  • DA the encounter resides in (based on PCCF+): da_uid

  • Neighbourhood-level income (continuous):

  • atippe (neighbourhood after tax income per single person equivalent)

  • btippe (neighbourhood before tax income per single person equivalent)

  • Neighbourhood-level income (quintiles from PCCF+):

  • qnatippe and qnbtippe: Quintiles of atippe and btippe calculated based on national income distribution

  • qaatippe and qabtippe: Quintiles of atippe and btippe calculated based on distribution within a given community (based on census metropolitan area, census agglomeration, or residual area within each province).

  • % visible minorities: vismin_pct

  • % with immigrant status: immsta_pct

  • % with post-secondary education:

  • Including all respondents > 15 years of age: ed_15over_postsec_pct

  • Only including respondents between 25-64 years: ed_25to64_postsec_pct

  • Ontario Marginalization Index (continuous):

  • If census_year = 2021: households_dwellings, material_resources, age_labourforce, racialized_NC_pop

  • If census_year = 2016: instability, deprivation, dependency, ethniccon

  • Ontario Marginalization Index (quintiles):

  • All ON-Marg variables are additionally returned as quintiles, as indicated by the suffix _q (e.g., households_dwellings_q)

Statistics Canada Census

The Statistics Canada census is collected every 5 years and provides a detailed statistical portrait of communities across Canada, including information about income, education, ethnicity, and immigrant status.

Census data are collected by dissemination area (DA), which typically covers a population of 400-700 people. To enable linkage between GEMINI data and DA-level location, the DA of a given encounter was derived from their postal code using the Postal Code Conversion File Plus (PCCF+) program.

The neighbourhood_ses() function currently returns the following census variables:

  • Income:

  • Statistics Canada sources information about household income from the Canadian Revenue Agency

  • PCCF+ provides an income per person equivalent (IPPE) by adjusting household income by household size

  • Both continuous income and national/community quintiles are returned

  • Education:

  • Indicates a person's highest level of education: Based on the long-form census questionnaire, which is only administered to 25% of households

  • The function returns the % of respondents with a post-secondary certificate, diploma, or degree

  • Visible minorities:

  • Indicates whether a person identifies as a visible minority, defined as follows by the Employment Equity Act: “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour” (e.g., Black, South Asian, Chinese, Latin American etc.)

  • Based on the long-form census questionnaire, which is only administered to 25% of households

  • Immigrant status:

  • Indicates whether a person is, or has ever been, a landed immigrant or permanent resident in Canada. This indludes those who have obtained Canadian citizenship by naturalization.

  • In 2021 census: Sourced from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

  • In 2016 census: Based on the long-form questionnaire (25% of households)

Ontario Marginalization Index (On-Marg)

On-Marg is a neighbourhood-level index measuring marginalization differences between areas based on a subset of variables from the Statistics Canada census.

The index was derived from a principal component factor analysis on 42 variables, which resulted in 18 indicators along the following 4 dimensions:

  1. Households and dwellings: Measures housing density and characteristics of family structure (e.g., living alone, % dwellings not owned)

  2. Material resources: Measures access to basic material needs (e.g., housing, food, and clothing), education, and employment

  3. Age and labour force: Includes indicators such as the % of seniors (65+), children, and those that are not part of the labour force

  4. Racialized and newcomer populations: Measures the % of people who are recent immigrants (within last 5 years) or identify as a visible minority

In the 2016 version of ON-Marg, the 4 dimensions were called "Residential instability", "Material deprivation", "Dependency", and "Ethnic concentration" respectively. The dimensions were renamed in 2021 to avoid deficit-based language and better reflect the census measures associated with each dimension.

All ON-Marg variables are available as continuous factor scores as well as quintiles. Higher scores represent a higher degree of marginalization (i.e., Q1 = least marginalized, Q5 = most marginalized). For continuous scores, negative (positive) values indicate that the observation falls below (above) the average level of the factor.

Missing values

Some encounters could not be linked to Statistics Canada data due to missing/ invalid postal codes, or due to the fact that they reside in an area not covered by the census. These encounters will be returned with da_uid = NA.

Additionally, Statistics Canada suppresses results from certain DAs due to low response rates or data quality issues. The corresponding census/ON-Marg variables will be returned as NA for all genc_ids in those DAs.

References

  • Statistics Canada Census

  • 2021 Census: https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/ref/index-eng.cfm

  • 2016 Census: https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/ref/index-eng.cfm

  • Ontario Maginalization Index

  • ON-Marg 2021: https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/o/2017/on-marg-userguide.pdf

  • ON-Marg 2016: https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/U/2018/userguide-on-marg.pdf

  • Additional information from Public Health Ontario: https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/Event-Presentations/2023/09/ontario-marginalization-index-updates-products.pdf?rev=07baae2569164c17abaa18464075aa20&sc_lang=en

  • PCCF+

  • PCCF+ Reference Guide: https://library.carleton.ca/sites/default/files/2023-03/PCCF%2BUserguide-2021.pdf

  • Measuring Health Inequalities - A Toolkit: https://www.cihi.ca/sites/default/files/document/toolkit-area-level-measurement-pccf-en.pdf

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
drv <- dbDriver("PostgreSQL")
dbcon <- DBI::dbConnect(drv,
  dbname = "db",
  host = "domain_name.ca",
  port = 1234,
  user = getPass("Enter user:"),
  password = getPass("password")
)

cohort <- dbGetQuery(dbcon, "SELECT genc_id from admdad LIMIT 100;")

neighbourhood_ses_table <- neighbourhood_ses(dbcon, cohort, 2021)
} # }