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Concern for Self-Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada: How to Tell an Intersectional Story Using Quantitative Data?

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Applied Data Science

Part of the book series: Studies in Big Data ((SBD,volume 125))

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Abstract

Rooted in Black feminism, intersectionality theory entered critical legal studies and travelled to public health and beyond. This chapter demonstrates one of many ways to apply intersectionality theory using a descriptive intercategorical approach to quantitative data. In so doing, I attempt to tell an intersectional story to make visible the intersectional inequalities for Canadians’ concerns for self-health during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. For pedagogical purposes, I share a subset of Statistics Canada’s COVID-19 Impacts Survey 2020 dataset of 239,143 participants and Stata code to encourage students to practice estimating intersectional outcomes and ask questions to explicate health inequalities. Although interrogating the systems of power is critical, this project does not statistically analyse but draws on the literature to discuss how interacting power structures might shape intersectional peoples’ experiences. In addition, the analysed dataset is not representative of the Canadian population. Nonetheless, it might be helpful to showcase a case study on introductory-level quantitative intersectionality research. I hope, despite these limitations, this case study and the pedagogical tools will contribute to greater access to intersectionality research, generating a cadre of intersectionality data translators in public health.

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Acknowledgements

I am deeply indebted to Greta Bauer, Ph.D., the former Canadian Institutes for Health and Research Sex and Gender Science Chair and currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Ontario, for providing guidance in writing this chapter. I am immensely thankful to the editors and reviewers for their insightful feedback on making this chapter accessible to an interdisciplinary audience.

Funding

Post-doctoral research fund of Dr. Greta Bauer’s Sex and Gender Science Chair (GSB-171372) of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Laila Rahman

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  1. Laila Rahman
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Correspondence to Laila Rahman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Douglas G. Woolford

  2. Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Donna Kotsopoulos

  3. Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Boba Samuels

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Rahman, L. (2023). Concern for Self-Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada: How to Tell an Intersectional Story Using Quantitative Data?. In: Woolford, D.G., Kotsopoulos, D., Samuels, B. (eds) Applied Data Science. Studies in Big Data, vol 125. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29937-7_4

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