tailieunhanh - THE HEALTH OF CANADA'S CHILDREN: CANADIAN CHILDREN'S HEALTH IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

Eisenmenger’s syndrome occurs before the age of 1 year in children with very high pulmonary blood flow, such as unrepaired AVSD, but may occur at the age of 40-50 years in adults with unrepaired ASD who have had moderately increased pulmonary blood flow over many years. Corrective cardiac surgery to avoid Eisenmenger’s must be undertaken before the onset of pulmonary vascular disease, the ideal age dependent on the severity of the underlying lesion. | Original Article This four-part series provides an overview of children s health in Canada and prospects for the future. It does so through a population health approach that is informed by a social determinants of health perspective. Part I provides some key indicators of Canadian children s health at the national and provincial levels and presents them within a comparative international perspective. Part II highlights the mechanisms and pathways by which children s health becomes shaped by their living conditions and the public policies that create these living conditions. Part III explores the social determinants of children s health and considers their quality within various governmental policy frameworks. Part IV considers the role physicians can play in improving the quality of the social determinants of health thereby improving Canadian children s health. The health of Canada s children. Part I Canadian children s health in comparative perspective Dennis Raphael PhD D Raphael. The health of Canada s children. Part I Canadian children s health in comparative perspective. Paediatr Child Health 2010 15 1 23-29. In the present article the state of Canadian children s health is provided through an examination of scores on a set of key health indicators. National and provincial infant mortality rates show little recent improvement and in the case of low birth weight rates a worsening trend is evident. These health indicators are strongly related to income and studies documenting these associations are reviewed. Compared with other wealthy nations Canada performs poorly with regard to infant mortality rates and somewhat less so for low birth weight rates. For other health indicators and measures of the quality of the social determinants of children s health such as poverty and children s well-being Canada s performance suggests that there are numerous areas for improvement. Key Words Paediatrics Public policy Social policy La santé des enfants canadiens. Partie I .