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Health Questionnaires

The Ontario Health Study collects health data by asking participants to fill out online questionnaires about their health.

COVID-19 Questionnaire

The OHS COVID-19 Questionnaire is now closed. Launched in spring 2020 in response to the COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic, this questionnaire asked many questions relating to each participants’ experience during this time, such as:

  • Your health conditions and risk factors for COVID-19
  • The impact the pandemic has had on your mental, emotional, social and financial wellbeing, what kind of support network you have around you, and how your job status may have been affected
  • Whether you were tested for COVID-19 or suspected you had an undiagnosed case of COVID-19
  • Which symptoms you may have experienced
  • If you were hospitalized or received medical care
  • The potential source of your exposure (recent international travel; household community or healthcare contact with a known case; or unknown)

This questionnaire was open to all OHS participants, whether or not you experienced symptoms personally. COVID-19 has had a profound impact on all our lives. If you are experiencing stress or anxiety and would like support, you can access a number of mental health services online or by phone.

The COVID-19 Questionnaire was administered by the regional studies that make up the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath). Researchers representing other population-based cohorts outside of Canada are administering similar questions to maximize the potential for pooling of findings. 

De-identified data from the OHS and CanPath COVID-19 Questionnaire are now available to researchers. This includes data collected from over 93,000 CanPath participants, who submitted their questionnaires prior to October 31st, 2020.

Work History Questionnaire

More than 33,000 OHS participants took part in the Work History Questionnaire in 2019. Researchers will use their responses to explore how people’s work conditions, experiences and exposures may interact with their health over time.

Data from the Work History Questionnaire are now available.

Baseline Questionnaire

As part of registration for the Study, participants were asked to fill out our baseline questionnaire, which looks at things such as:

  • Demographics
  • Personal and family health history
  • Sleep patterns
  • Physical activity
  • Emotional health and well-being
  • Alcohol and tobacco use
  • Environmental exposures

Follow-up Questionnaires

Because the Ontario Health Study is a long-term study, one of the things that researchers are interested in how your health changes over time. We track our participants’ health over time by asking them to fill out follow-up questionnaires from time to time.

Sometimes the questions will be similar to those on the baseline questionnaire. The questions repeated are those that you might answer differently such as your weight and habits such as alcohol and tobacco use. There may be additional questions on other health topics.

The OHS concluded its first follow-up questionnaire in March 2018. More information about the first follow-up questionnaire can be found here.