Capital Health assesses region’s overall health
May 10, 2007
Annual review shows most enjoy good health but some areas for concern
Edmonton, Canada – The latest assessment of the region's overall health demonstrates how many factors influence people's health and how important it is for everyone to work together to improve the health of the population. That's the message in this year's annual Medical Officer of Health report, How healthy are we? 2006.
"While we've seen some positive trends in many areas, we are also concerned about the ill health being experienced by many. As a region, we need to mobilize resources to build environments that promote health and make it easier for people to make healthy choices," says Dr. Gerry Predy, Vice President, Public Health and Medical Officer of Health. "In this time of economic boom that means providing access to healthy housing, clean water and air, good transportation links, and ensuring that more children are active, have healthy food to eat and complete high school."
The report finds that most residents can expect to live long lives, women to about 83 years and 78 years for men. It also notes that since the 2005 report, the region's population has increased by 19,000 people to 1,024,263 and the average age is 37.2 years. Other positive trends include declines in the number of people smoking daily, a lower teen birth rate, a lower than provincial average rate of people who die from heart disease and decreases in the mortality rates for both breast and prostate cancer.
But more troubling, says Dr. Predy, are issues such as the continuing high number of adults who are overweight or obese, pregnant women who continue to smoke, babies being born too early, and more people being diagnosed with high blood pressure. "We also continue to see circulatory disease, such as heart disease and stroke, and cancer as the leading causes of death in the region, accounting for 61.1 per cent of all deaths," he adds. "Unintentional injury such as falls, transportation-related collisions, and sport-related injuries also remain the number-one reason for visits to Emergency Departments – many of which could be prevented."
New to the report this year is a look at the environment including built, social and natural environments as well as comparative health data for the 15 geographic areas in the region. Dr. Predy says the differences from area to area highlight the importance of identifying the existing supports in healthier areas to see what can be learned and transferred to those areas where the indicators aren't as positive.
"For example, the life expectancy for women in the Castle Downs area of the region is 85.3 years while in Eastwood it is 79.4 so we need to take a closer look at what is behind the difference and identify what we can do to improve the health of areas such as Eastwood," he says. "As a region we're doing a good job in many areas but our work is not yet done."
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