Abstract

Statistics Canada has a long history of developing microsimulation models on various topics, including population health. The Population Health Model (POHEM) was developed to project the presence and impact of health-related risk factors on the burden of certain chronic conditions and mortality in the Canadian population. Additionally, OncoSim was developed in collaboration with the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer to model four cancer sites (breast, colorectal, lung, and cervical) and related screening programs in detail, and to provide high-level projections for 25 cancer sites for use by decision-makers to better understand the impact of cancer control interventions.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, POHEM and OncoSim were used to evaluate consequences of pandemic-related lockdowns/restrictions, including changes in health behaviours and paused cancer screening programs. This session will describe how these models were used to evaluate pandemic-related impacts, and how they can be used in a post-pandemic reality to evaluate longer-term health outcomes for the Canadian population.