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Glossary:
Folic acid use prior to pregnancy
The percentage of women who gave birth (live or still) who reported taking folic acid prior to pregnancy. Includes women who reported any folic acid use prior to pregnancy (including those who continued use during pregnancy).
Food Handler Certification Program
A program designed to teach food handlers the general principles of safe food handling such as risk factors associated with food borne illness and to teach the skills necessary to handle food and prevent illness from occurring. The course is based on the principles of sanitary food service and hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) procedures.
Food Safety Management Plan
A food safety management plan is a documentation process to “identify and assess hazards and risk associated with a food operation and defining the means of their control”.1 Although not a legislated requirement for food premises, it is considered an operational best practice.
1. Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Operational approaches for food safety guideline, 2019 [Internet]. Toronto (ON): Queen’s Printer of Ontario; 2019 Feb [cited 2019 Oct 30]. 20 p. Available from http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/publichealth/oph_standards/d...
Food Security
Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/w3613e/w3613e00.htm The CCHS survey questions asked whether household members were able to afford the food they needed in the previous 12 months. Households were classified as food insecure if there was an indication of compromise in quality and/or quantity of food consumed or reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns due to lack of money.
Former Smoking
Does not smoke at current time but has smoked 100 or more cigarettes in lifetime.
General Fertility Rate
The number of live births during a given period over the female population aged 15-49.
Hazardous Food
Any food that is capable of supporting the growth of pathogenic organisms or production of the toxins from such organisms
HBHC early childhood period
From six weeks of age to six years of age.
HBHC postpartum period
From the infant’s birth up to six weeks of age.
HBHC prenatal period
From conception up to the birth of the infant.
Heavy drinking
Monthly occurrences of drinking 5 or more standard drinks on any single occasion.
High birth weight rate
The number of live births with a birth weight of 4,500 grams or more, per 100 live births.
Home Language
The language spoken most often at home
Household food security
the financial ability of households to access adequate food. Insecurity included marginal, moderate and severe food insecurity.
Housing Affordability
Spending more than 30% of the household income on housing costs like rent or mortgage payments, property taxes and utilities can leave people without enough money for other important necessities like food, clothing and transportation.
Hypertension
Also known as high blood pressure. Occurs when the blood pressure in the arteries is elevated and the heart has to work harder than normal to pump blood through the blood vessels.1
1. Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. High Blood Pressure [Internet]. Ottawa, ON: Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada; 2018 [cited 2019 Sep 23]. Available from: https://www.heartandstroke.ca/heart/risk-and-prevention/condition-risk-factors/high-blood-pressure
Immigrant
Immigrants are people who are or who have ever been landed immigrants or permanent residents. Such persons have been granted the right to live in Canada permanently by immigration authorities. Immigrants who have obtained Canadian citizenship by naturalization are included in this category.
Immunization coverage
“Immunization coverage refers to the proportion of a defined population that is appropriately immunized against a specific vaccine-preventable disease (VPD) at a point in time”2 .
Student immunization coverage is usually expressed as a percent, and can be calculated for a variety of populations of interest: within a particular grade in a school, for an entire school, or across an entire region. As immunization coverage values increase, the greater the proportion of people in the population of interest who are appropriately immunized, and therefore considered to have protection from the vaccine-preventable disease of interest.
Assessment of whether or not students are appropriately immunized is based on whether they have received the immunizations indicated in the Publicly Funded Immunization Schedules for Ontario at the appropriate age and time intervals.
Immunization of School Pupils Act
The Immunization of School Pupils Act (ISPA) is the Ontario legislation that outlines the responsibilities of Ontario public health units to maintain immunization records for students attending schools in their jurisdictions, and to assess those records to ensure that students are appropriately immunized against designated vaccine-preventable diseases of public health significance. Under the ISPA, students whose immunization records are not up-to-date for designated diseases may be suspended from school. Those who have had the disease of interest or who have medical reasons for being unimmunized against ISPA-designated diseases can submit a Statement of Medical Exemption. Those who have philosophical or religious reasons for being unimmunized can submit a Statement of Conscience or Religious Belief.
Impact of Health Problems
This is a crude measure of the impact of long-term physical conditions, mental conditions and health problems on the principal domains of life: home, work, school, and other activities.