Correlates of health and healthcare performance: applying the Canadian health indicators framework at the provincial-territorial level

Table 3 Correlations between health (status) indicators and non-medical determinants of health

	Self-rated health (excellent or very good) [+]	Body mass index higher than 27 [-]	Asthma rate [-]	Diabetes rate [-]	Functional health (perfect or very good) [+]	Life expectancy [+]
*Non-medical determinants of health*
Health behaviors
Smoking status [-]	-0.586 ^†	0.337	-0.688^†	-0.794^‡	-0.583 ^†	-0.633 ^‡
Frequency of heavy drinking [-]	-0.391	0.571 ^†	-0.252	-0.437	-0.161	-0.783 ^‡
Leisure-time physical activity [+]	0.121	-0.600 ^†	0.079	-0.339	0.116	0.710 ^†
Dietary practices [+]	0.420	-0.853 ^†	0.258	0.135	0.269	0.633 ^†
Living and working conditions
High school graduates [+]	0.490	-0.485	0.855^‡	0.622^†	0.712 ^‡	0.754 ^†
Post-secondary graduates [+]	0.451	-0.456	0.711^‡	0.237	0.556 ^†	0.585
Unemployment rate [-]	0.524	0.546	-0.497	0.836 ^‡	0.432	-0.727 ^†
Youth unemployment [-]	0.396	0.398	-0.436	0.791 ^‡	0.260	-0.284
Low income rate [-]	-0.050	-0.143	-0.419	0.145	0.556^†	-0.196
Average personal income [+]	-0.203	-0.411	0.207	-0.546 ^†	0.063	0.821 ^‡
Personal resources
Life stress [-]	-0.008	-0.468	0.652 ^†	0.177	0.516	0.581
Environmental factors
Exposure to second-hand smoke [-]	-0.252	0.590 ^†	0.083	-0.071	0.238	-0.676 ^†

[-] implies that lower levels of the indicator are preferred
[+] implies that higher levels of the indicator are preferred
^† P < 0.05
^‡ P < 0.01
Bold: correlation is significant in the possibly preferred direction and exceeds the critical level necessary for the sample size
Italicized: correlation is in the possibly preferred direction but is not significant at the critical level necessary for the sample size

ISSN: 1472-6963