Canadian Health Measures Survey: A tool for immigrant health research?

The Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) fills important health information gaps, but the feasibility of using it for immigrant research is unknown.

Weighted estimates of socio-demographic variables by immigrant status from the combined cycles 1 and 2 of the CHMS (2007 to 2009 and 2009 to 2011) were compared with distributions from the 2006 Census and the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS). Weighted CHMS estimates of selected self-reported health indicators among immigrants were compared with corresponding data from the 2009/2010 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) by age group, sex, broad world region of origin, and period of arrival. Z-scores were used to detect statistical significance between the CHMS and CCHS estimates.

The CHMS immigrant sample is generally similar to the average of 2006 Census/2011 NHS samples, but it contains higher percentages of recent immigrants, 30- to 49-year-olds, and immigrants from South/Central America. Estimates of selected self-reported health and health behaviour variables from the CHMS and the CCHS were similar overall, with minor differences at subgroup levels, and some inconclusive results due to high variability.

The combined CHMS immigrant sample can be used for health research. However, it is necessary to ensure that variables of interest meet sample size and prevalence requirements, especially at the subgroup level.