Janus Magdalena, Enns Jennifer, Forer Barry, Raos Rob, Gaskin Ashley, Webb Simon, Duku Eric, Brownell Marni, Muhajarine Nazeem, Guhn Martin
Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.
Int J Popul Data Sci. 2018 Sep 21;3(3):431. doi: 10.23889/ijpds.v3i3.431.
The Canadian Neighbourhoods and Early Child Development (CanNECD) database is a unique resource for research on child developmental health and well-being within the socioeconomic and cultural context of Canadian neighbourhoods. This paper describes the CanNECD database and highlights its potential for advancing research at the intersection of child development, social determinants of health, and neighbourhood effects. The CanNECD database contains cross-sectional population-level child developmental health data from all across Canada collected through regional implementation of the Early Development Instrument (EDI), geo-coded information on residential neighbourhoods covering all of Canada, and socioeconomic and demographic variables from the Canada Census and Income Taxfiler database. Individuals are not identified in the database, as no identifying information, such as names and addresses, is attached to the EDI record. At data collection, each individual child is given a unique number which is a combination of site, school, and position on a class list. Each neighbourhood receives a unique identifier which then is linkable across datasets. The nearly 800,000 EDI records spanning 2003-2014 and representing all Canadian provinces and territories (with the exception of Nunavut) are compiled in a secure electronic collection system at the Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Early studies using the EDI demonstrated its utility as a tool for assessing child developmental health at a population level, and its potential for both community-level and large-scale monitoring of child populations. Research using the CanNECD database is now examining to what extent social determinants and the steepness of the social gradients of developmental health differ between geographical jurisdictions and between different sub-populations. We are also working to identify outlier neighbourhoods in which EDI scores are substantially higher or lower than predicted by a neighbourhood's demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and exploring other potentially important determinants of children's developmental health. Finally, we are examining the extent to which change-over-time in aggregate EDI scores varies geographically, and how well it coincides with changes in socioeconomic factors. Thus, the CanNECD database offers the opportunity for research that will inform national policies and strategies on child developmental health.
加拿大社区与儿童早期发展（CanNECD）数据库是研究加拿大社区社会经济和文化背景下儿童发育健康与福祉的独特资源。本文介绍了CanNECD数据库，并强调了其在推动儿童发展、健康的社会决定因素和社区影响交叉领域研究方面的潜力。CanNECD数据库包含通过早期发展工具（EDI）的区域实施在加拿大各地收集的横断面人口水平儿童发育健康数据、覆盖加拿大全境的居住社区地理编码信息，以及来自加拿大人口普查和所得税申报数据库的社会经济和人口变量。数据库中不识别个人身份，因为EDI记录未附加姓名和地址等识别信息。在数据收集时，每个儿童都被赋予一个唯一的编号，该编号是地点、学校和班级名单上位置的组合。每个社区都有一个唯一的标识符，然后可以跨数据集进行链接。2003年至2014年期间跨越加拿大所有省份和地区（努纳武特地区除外）的近80万条EDI记录被汇编在加拿大汉密尔顿麦克马斯特大学奥福德儿童研究中心的一个安全电子收集系统中。早期使用EDI的研究证明了其作为在人口水平上评估儿童发育健康的工具的效用，以及其在社区层面和大规模监测儿童群体方面的潜力。使用CanNECD数据库的研究目前正在考察社会决定因素以及发育健康的社会梯度陡度在不同地理区域和不同亚人群之间的差异程度。我们还在努力识别EDI分数显著高于或低于根据社区人口和社会经济特征预测值的异常社区，并探索儿童发育健康的其他潜在重要决定因素。最后，我们正在研究总体EDI分数随时间的变化在地理上的差异程度，以及它与社会经济因素变化的吻合程度。因此，CanNECD数据库为研究提供了机会，这些研究将为国家关于儿童发育健康的政策和战略提供信息。
