RDC News: January 2015

Upcoming Hours Changes:
Mills library is now re-opened after the holidays. All hours are back to normal, with the following exception: Closed during lunch hour (approx. 11:30am-l:30pm) on Wednesday, January 7th.

Peter and Ruben will be giving a Lunch & Learn session at the Offered Centre for Child Studies.

New data sets at the RDC:
In the upcoming weeks we will be receiving new data sets and surveys at the McMaster Research Data Centre. Please see the information below. Researchers interested in accessing these data sets are encouraged to submit proposals!

2011 Childhood National Immunization Coverage (CNICS)

The Childhood National Immunization Coverage (CNICS) is a cross-sectional survey that collects information on national immunization coverage for childhood vaccines. This data determines if children are immunized according to the recommended vaccine schedule. National immunization coverage rates are also passed along to the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization. The CNICS also assesses the knowledge, attitudes, and awareness that parents have of vaccines by asking questions on the challenges faced trying to keep vaccinations up-to-date, reasons they decided not to vaccinate, and their main sources of vaccine information. For example, parents are asked the reasons why their child has not received immunizations. Some response options include: no access to health care, concerns about vaccine safety, too many vaccines are required, believing vaccines are not effective, parents having philosophical objections, or religious reasons. Vaccine safety beliefs and ratings on the importance of vaccinating for specific diseases are also captured. Data is collected via parental report and validated by the health care providers of the respondents. Parents of children aged 2, 7 and 17 years old, and girls aged 12-14 years old, living in the 10 provinces and three territories, were eligible to be sampled. Two survey weights are provided, one to provide estimates that calculate immunization coverage rates and the other to analyse parental knowledge and attitudes.

Those interested in the health of children and youth and disease prevention might find this a very useful and interesting data set. Further information can be found at: http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl? Function=getSurvey&Survld=113794&lnstald=113798&SDDS=5185