Health Risk Factors

Topic Box from the 2006 Sixth Annual Benchmark Report

Cancer and heart disease remain the biggest killers in Canada overall and in British Columbia. In 2004, cancer was responsible for 28.3 percent and heart disease 22.6 percent of all deaths in BC; together they account for the majority of deaths in BC. Both share common risk factors – obesity, inactivity, poor eating habits, and tobacco use. These health risk factors are common, but are controllable through changes in habits and lifestyle.

Obesity, Poor Eating Habits and Inactivity
Cancers related to poor diet include bladder, lung, oral cavity, pancreas, prostate and stomach. The International Agency for Research on Cancer attributes one-quarter to one-third of all breast, colon, esophagus, kidney and uterus cancers to excess body weight and inactivity. As well, those who are overweight are at higher risk of high blood pressure, high blood lipids and diabetes, putting them at a higher risk of heart disease and stroke.

In 2005, 53 percent of Canadians 12 or older still did not get their recommended intake of fruit and vegetables, 47 percent were physically inactive and 29 percent of youths and 59 percent of adults were either overweight or obese. In addition to the measured body mass index (BMI) data reported above, Statistics Canada reports self-reported BMIs. Comparing the measured and reported BMI data reveals that youths tend to overestimate height and underestimate weight and that among adults, women tend to underestimate weight and men tend to overstimate height. Moreover, underreporting of weight increases with higher measured BMIs. For example, 33.4 percent of adults self-reported being overweight while measurements show the rate is a slightly higher 34.9 percent. However, only 15.5 percent of adults self-reported as obese, while measurement shows that fully 24.3 percent of the adult population is actually obese.

Smoking, Tobacco use and Exposure to Tobacco
According to the Canadian Cancer Society, exposure to tobacco increases the risks not only of lung cancer (the top cause of all cancer deaths) but also of bladder, cervix, colorectal, esophagus, kidney, larynx, oral and pancreatic cancer. According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, heart disease rates are 70 percent higher for smokers than non-smokers. Smoking is still the leading cause of preventable illness in Canada, accounting for 30 percent of cancer deaths, even though the percentage of smokers in Canada has been on the decline since 1965. However, 22 percent of Canadians aged 12 or more were smokers in 2005, 24 percent of men and 20 percent of women.

BC and the Health Risk Factors
British Columbia currently ranks low among all the provinces in occurrence and prevalence of health risks. British Columbia had the lowest overweight proportion of adults in Canada with 54.0 percent of men and 36.4 percent of women self-reporting as overweight or obese in 2005. The Canadian average was 57.7 percent for men and 40.3 percent for women. BC also had the lowest rate for those 12 and over who were physically inactive in 2005 at 40.1 percent vs. the Canadian average of 46.7 percent. For smoking and exposure to tobacco, British Columbia had the lowest proportion of those 12 and over that were current smokers of all Canadian provinces in 2005, at 17.8 percent. Manitoba had the second lowest rate (20.4%), while Quebec had the highest (24.4%). British Columbia also had the lowest proportion of those aged 12 and older exposed to second-hand smoke at home, at 4.8 percent, while the Canadian average was 8.7 percent and Prince Edward Island was the highest, at 13.6 percent.

British Columbia may rank low relative to other provinces, but these risks still affect health in BC. The percentage of obese and/or overweight individuals, both in Canada overall and in BC, is on the rise. And while BC has the lowest percentage of current smokers, there are 639,351 British Columbians still smoking. Policies and programs can help inform people and encourage healthy lifestyles recognizing the correlation between smoking, exposure to tobacco, obesity, poor eating habits, and physical inactivity, and cancer and heart disease. However, the onus is on individuals to actually make the changes.

Sources: BC Stats; Canadian Cancer Society / National Cancer Institute of Canada, Canadian Cancer Statistics 2005; Statistics Canada, Health Indicators – June 2006, catalogue no. 82-221-XIE. Heart and Stroke Foundation Heart Disease: Risk Factors, 2005; Health Canada, Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS) 2004.