An internationally influential model of population health was developed in Canada in the 1990s, shifting the research agenda beyond health care to the social and economic determinants of health. While agreeing that health has important social determinants, the authors believe that this model has serious shortcomings; they critique the model by focusing on its hidden assumptions. Assumptions about how knowledge is produced and an implicit interest group perspective exclude the sociopolitical and class contexts that shape interest group power and citizen health. Overly rationalist assumptions about change understate the role of agency. The authors review the policy and practice implications of the Canadian population health model and point to alternative ways of viewing the determinants of health.

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Wounds are a serious healthcare issue with profound personal, clinical and economic implications. Using a working definition of compromised wounds, this study examines the prevalence of wounds by type and by healthcare setting using data from hospitals, home care, hospitalbased continuing care and long-term care facilities within fiscal year 2011-2012 in Canada. It also evaluates several risk factors associated with wounds, such as diabetes, circulatory disease and age. Compromised wounds were reported in almost 4% of in-patient acute hospitalizations and in more than 7% of home care clients, almost 10% of long-term care clients and almost 30% of hospital-based continuing care clients. Patients with diabetes were much more likely to have a compromised wound than were patients without the disease.