1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«Our objective was to assess trends in Inuit, First Nations and non-Aboriginal birth outcomes in the rural and northern regions of Quebec». (p. 1)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«This was a population-based retrospective cohort study of all births to residents of rural and northern Quebec (n=177,193), based on Statistics Canada’s linked stillbirth, live birth and infant death data for 1991-2000.» (p. 2)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«Using 2 proxy indicators of Aboriginal ethnicity, this study reveals a worse pattern in some mortality-based birth outcomes over time (from 1991-1995 to 1996-2000) for births to First Nations and Inuit mother tongue women and for predominantly First Nations and Inuit communities relative to the rates for births to non-Aboriginal mother tongue women and for births to all women in predominantly non-Aboriginal communities, respectively, in the rural and northern areas of Quebec. This is in contrast to some improvement for births to non-Aboriginal mother tongue women and for women in predominantly non-Aboriginal communities in the same settings. Our results indicate a need to improve socio-economic conditions, perinatal and neonatal care for Aboriginal people in rural and northern regions. The improvements in some birth outcomes for the non-Aboriginal group over the 2 time periods are more consistent in rural and northern areas as a whole, but not so in northern areas only, suggesting that non-Aboriginal women were also affected by poor access to high quality perinatal and neonatal care in northern regions. […] We found increasing rates of preterm birth for all groups over the study period, but the rates increased more substantially for First Nations mother tongue women (by about 40%, from 5.2 to 7.3%) in northern Quebec.» (p. 6)