Blog #26
Do you remember taking a course in statistics?
Guess what, they are incredibly important. After you worked through the z scores and t
tests you probably thought to yourself, “Well, I won’t be seeing that again.” Think again, just like the millions of lines
of coding that go into a video game like Minecraft, the layers of numbers that
get routinely crunched in the service of statistics is astounding. Two weeks ago Stats Canada contacted our
household about the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) and my son was
randomly selected to complete the survey.
The CCHS is now done annually by randomly
picking 65,000 Canadians to answer a number of questions related to health care:
general health, mental health, nutrition, alcohol consumption, sexual
practices, etc. Then the very bright
people of Stats Canada compile and analyze the data and make it available to
Canadians. This information helps with making health care decisions. For example, I went on the Stats Can websiteand put in the word diabetes
and filtered out tabulated data for
2018-2019. Interesting findings, it
should be no surprise that there was an increase in numbers of cases of
diabetes in all brackets, but I was surprised just how substantial the increase
was. Information like this helps health
care providers and bureaucrats to plan, meet future needs, and implement preventive
measures. At Burlington Eyecare we know
that people with diabetes are at risk for “diabetic retinopathy” and they need
to be seen regularly for a full eye exam to monitor their health. The eye exam includes a dilated fundus exam
and optical coherence tomography to rule out any eye disease. Back in 2004 we
purchased our first fundus camera to try to meet the growing demands of the
diabetic population. It was numbers such
as these from Stats Can which helped us decide to make these purchases and to fine
tune our clinical practices.
I also need to mention, that the phone survey is
professionally done, and all information gathered is kept strictly confidential.
Please co-operate with Stats Canada when they contact you for the CCH Survey,
should your household be selected.
Til next week,
The Good Doctor, Dr. Mark Germain, Burlington Eyecare
