Table 1: Description of the data
VariableDescriptionSources
HCV rateStandardized sex- and age-stratified rates of cases of HCV infection (per 100 000 population) reported to the Public Health Agency of Canada• Canadian Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System for HCV case counts (7)
• Statistics Canada, Demography Division. Population estimates 0–100+, 1971–2012. Updated postcensal estimates, July 2012 (21)
Log-logit-transformed HCV rateOriginal reported rates of HCV infection were transformed as follows:
f(p) = log[−log(p/1 − p)]
Created
ResidualResiduals of the log-logit-transformed HCV rate after mean polish analysisCreated (according to Selvin) (22)
Birth groupCategorical variable describing fourteen 5-year birth groups spanning 70 years (1921−1925 = 1,… 1986−1990 = 14)Created
Reporting periodCategorical variable describing four 5-year reporting periods spanning 20 years of testing (1991−1995, 1996−2000, 2001−2005, 2006−2010)Created
Cohort effectCategorical variable used in the regression model to describe the joint effect of birth group and reporting period on the original HCV ratesCreated as birth group × reporting period

Note: HCV = hepatitis C virus.