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10 HELPS Data Source

 

Introduction:  What is HELPS?

  • HELPS is the HEalth Planning System that was established in 1995 by the Ministry of Health, Public Branch in order to provide public health units with electronic morbidity and mortality data. Prior to HELPS, health units received paper printouts of death and hospitalization rates for their areas.
  • HELPS consisted of SPSS software and SPSS or Excel data files, as well as training for new public health epidemiologists. Disks and CDs were sent by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to the health units. The last data files sent out were in 2007.
  • HELPS provided Vital Statistics data (live births, stillbirths, deaths); therapeutic abortion and teen pregnancy data; congenital anomaly data; population estimates; data from the Ontario Breast Cancer Screening Program (OBSP) for 2000-01; and cancer incidence data from the Ontario Cancer Registry for 1980-1995 & 1981-1996.
  • HELPS has been largely replaced by intelliHEALTH ONTARIO. However, many health units still have HELPS datafiles and some may be using them. Information about various HELPS data files is listed below, including recommendations for analysis from the Core Indicators Work Group.
Vital Statistics - Live Birth Data
  • Information on live births was collected by the Office of the Registrar General (ORG) using the birth registration form completed by parents and the Physician Notice of Birth or Stillbirth form (PNOB).
  • Out-of-province births occurring to Ontario mothers were included in HELPS from 1981 to 1992 but were excluded since 1993. This particularly affected areas bordering Quebec and Manitoba. For consistent comparisons over time, exclude the out-of-province births for both local and provincial analysis (resprov not equal to 5 until 1996 or resprov not equal to 935 for 1997) and births occurring out-of-province to Ontario mothers (occprov not equal to 5 or 935 as above) for consistency over time. Years vary on what out-of-province births have been included or excluded. In 1995 only, live births occurring in Ontario to out-of-province mothers were included in the HELPS database.
  • Maternal postal code became available in the live birth datafiles starting in 1996.
  • The "wtcode" variable represents the birth weight code in grams (<1500g, 1500-2499g, 2500+g, unknown). Stillbirth data is missing birth weight for about 5% of cases. Recode "bthwght" (1997 live birth file), "birthwt" (1997 stillbirth file) or "bwt_gm" (1996 and earlier stillbirth and live birth files), which represents birth weight in grams, into a new variable for consistency.
  • The "born" variable represents "the total number of birth (live and still) born in this event". This variable exists in the live birth data files in 1996 and 1997 and in the stillbirth files in 1997. Prior to 1996 this variable does not exist in the live birth data set and only the kind of birth (kindbth) variable is available. The kind of birth variable, which also exists in the 1996 file, is not perfect for distinguishing single versus multiple births because it labels a birth "multiple" only if more than one of the infants is born live. For example, if a twin birth involves one live born infant and one stillbirth, the kind of birth variable would be labelled singleton. No variable exists in the stillbirth data file prior to 1997, which distinguishes between single and multiple births. Using intelliHEALTH avoids these problems.
  

HELPS Releases of Live Birth Data:

HELPS1 -Y2K Release June 1999; 1981-1996 data

HELPS1 Release October 2000; 1997 data

HELPS1 Release August 2002 & November 2002; 1998-1999 data with postal codes

HELPS1 Release September 2003; 2000 data

HELPS  Release October 2004;  2001 data

HELPS Release February 2007, 2000-2003 data

HELPS Release October 2007, 2000-2004 data

 

Vital Statistics - Stillbirth Data
  • Information on stillbirths was collected by the Office of the Registrar General based on three forms: 1) the Statement of Stillbirth completed by parents, 2) the Physician Notice of Birth or Stillbirth (PNOB) completed by the physician, and 3) the more detailed Medical Certificate of Stillbirth completed by the physician.
  • Out-of-province stillbirths occurring to Ontario women were not included in HELPS until a 1999 re-release of data to add out-of-province stillbirths from 1981 to 1992 to make stillbirths consistent with other vital statistics data. Out-of-province stillbirths were not included in data from 1993 onwards. The exclusions particularly affected areas bordering Quebec and Manitoba. For consistent comparisons over time, exclude all out-of-province stillbirths for both local and provincial analysis (resprov not equal to 5 until 1996 or resprov not equal to 935 for 1997) and births occurring out-of-province (occprov not equal to 5 or 935 as above) for consistency over time. Years vary on what out-of-province births have been included or excluded.
  • Maternal postal code became available in the birth datafiles starting in 1996 but most postal codes were missing in the stillbirth datafile in 1997.
  • HELPS provided the ICD-9 classification of the cause of stillbirth; intelliHEALTH provides the ICD10 underlying cause of stillbirth with no information about cause prior to 2000.
  

HELPS Releases of Stillbirth Data:

HELPS1 -Y2K Release June 1999; 1981-1996 data

HELPS1 Release October 2000; 1997 data

HELPS1 Release August 2002 & November 2002; 1998-1999 data without postal codes

HELPS1 Release September 2003; 2000 data

HELPS  Release October 2004;  2001 data

HELPS Release February 2007, 2000-2003 data

HELPS Release October 2007, 2000-2004 data

 

Vital Statistics - Mortality Data
  • The Office of the Registrar General obtains information about mortality from death certificates which are completed by physicians. All deaths within Ontario are registered in the office of the division registrar within which the death occurs. A Statement of Death (Form 15) and a Medical Certificate of Death (Form 16) must be filed with a division registrar before a Burial Permit can be issued.
  • Caution against using "Leading Cause" variable since it is not inclusive.
  • For HELPS death data: Perinatal and neonatal mortality is determined by using agetype=1(minutes), 2(hours), 3(days), or 4(months) combined with recage (for deaths in ageyr1=<1).
  • Ontario residents who died outside of the province were included in HELPS from 1981 to 1992 but excluded since 1993. This particularly affected areas bordering Quebec and Manitoba. Exclude the out-of-province deaths for both local and provincial analysis.
 

HELPS Releases of Mortality Data:

HELPS1 -Y2K Release June 1999; 1981-1996 data

HELPS1 Release October 2000; 1997 data

HELPS1 Release August 2002 & November 2002; 1998-1999 data with postal codes

HELPS1 Release September 2003; 2000 data

HELPS  Release October 2004;  2001 data

HELPS Release February 2007, 2000-2003 data

HELPS Release October 2007, 2000-2004 data

 

Therapeutic Abortion Data
  • Information on therapeutic abortions (TAs) was collected by Ontario hospitals and clinics and provided to the Ontario Ministry of Health. The information was provided voluntarily by hospitals but is considered to be relatively complete. Since clinics must provide the information as a condition of their license, the data essentially capture all in-clinic TAs.
  • Data for the number of TAs done in clinic were not available until 1992; data should only be presented for 1992 and later. The number of hospital and clinic TAs from HELPS data could not be differentiated in the 1993 data.
  • TA data from HELPS was provided in Excel spreadsheets
  • TA data for health units was available only through HELPS and did not become available from the Provincial Health Planning Database (through a TA query) until 2007. A predefined report was subsequently available in intelliHEALTH ONTARIO.
 

HELPS Releases of TA Data:

HELPS Release June 1999; 1992-1995 data

HELPS Release May 2003; 1996-2000 data

HELPS Release May 2004; 2001 data, file: abor_h&C2001_crosstab_2.xls

HELPS Release August 2004; 2002 data, file: abor2002_hu&ont_1HELPSAug2004.xls

HELPS Release April 2005; 2003 data, file: abor_H&C2003_crosstab HELPSApril2005.xls

HELPS Release January 2007; 2004 data, file: abort_c&h_2004_1.xls

HELPS Release October 22, 2007; 2005 data, file: Abor2005_ch_1.xls

 

Congenital Anomalies Data
  • Congenital anomalies data from the Canadian Congenital Anomalies Surveillance System (CCASS) of Health Canada (now the Public Health Agency of Canada) was provided in Excel spreadsheets.
  • The CCASS data were based on hospitalization in the first year of life.
  • Congenital anomaly data from HELPS was provided in Excel spreadsheets by census division.
 

HELPS Releases of Congenital Anomaly Data:

HELPS1 - Y2K Release Sept 1999; 1996 data

HELPS Release October 2000; 1982-1997 data

HELPS Release May 2004; 1990-2000 data

 

Date of last revision:  January 16, 2013
 
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