Albert Guite, site manager for Statistics Canada’s mobile medical clinic, stands outside the trailers that make up the facility parked by Storybook Gardens in London, Ont. Photograph taken on Friday December 6, 2019.
In the shadow of a children’s theme park, Londoners are quietly getting their first chance to take part in a massive national survey that could help shape the future of Canadian health-care policy.
Statistics Canada has set up a mobile clinic of three trailers outside Storybook Gardens to gather data for a wide assessment of Canadians’ medical statistics. Called the Canadian Health Measures Survey, it’s creating a database researchers can use to identify health areas where the public is falling behind.
Outside, except for their government of Canada logos, the modified trailers in Springbank Park look nondescript.
Inside, they include exam rooms, a lab and other health equipment.
Before Statistics Canada wraps up in London, it’s expected several hundred city residents will have taken part in the full-blown survey, which starts with a home visit and includes tests run at the mobile clinic and study participants wearing a trackable activity monitor for a week.
“We test for a lot. A lot is related to cardiovascular disease, general health and environmental contaminants. Some of the tests that we do we can give subjects direct reports immediately,” said Albert Guite, the clinic’s site manager.
The project gathers in-depth health data about regular Canadians, including their blood pressure, height, weight, vision quality and bone density.
StatsCan health surveyors have gone across Canada since 2007, but this is their first time in London, the 16th and final stop on the sixth phase of the mobile health measures survey.
Earlier stops have included the Brantford area, Windsor and Kitchener-Waterloo.
About 500 randomly selected Londoners, from ages three to 79, were invited to take part, with about 360 expected to complete the testing process, Guite said.
The clinic rolled into London a month ago and will spend another two weeks here testing patients.
“London has been on track to reach 360 respondents,” Guite said. “We’re close to meeting our targets.”
StatsCan conducts the survey with Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
After the home visit and survey, participants visit the clinic and wear the trackable activity monitor.
Among other things, the clinic measures patients’ height, weight, grip strength, flexibility, blood pressure, bone density and vision. Blood and urine samples also are taken, so technicians can test for conditions including diabetes and high cholesterol.
With participants’ consent, anonymous blood, urine and DNA samples collected will be kept at the Public Health Agency of Canada’s maximum security National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg.
“That information can be accessed through Health Canada’s research committee for researchers who want to do studies for the benefit of Canadians,” Guite said. “None of the information we have goes to pharmaceutical companies or insurance companies. It’s strictly for research and statistical reasons only.”
After London, the trailers go to Ottawa to be retooled for the next round of testing in 2021, Guite said.
For researchers, the information gathered provides vital insight into the health of average Canadians.
“Every person that comes here is representing thousands of Canadians of the same gender and age,” Guite said. “That information can be put together to see how certain age groups, and certain genders, are doing across the country,”
