Study: Only one in ten Canadians in ideal cardiovascular health

Fewer than one in ten Canadians has ideal cardiovascular health.

A new study published in the Canadian Medical Journal done by the Cardiovascular Health in Ambulatory Care (CANHEALTH) research used their health index to rank over 460,000 Canadians on a scale of one to six based on criteria for how healthy their heart is.

To score six on the index you must be a non-smoker (quitting over one year earlier qualifies, highlighting the benefits of quitting) with a BMI less than 25. You must do at least 30 minutes of walking each day, or equivalent, eat five servings of fruit and vegetables each day and have no hypertension or diabetes. Only one in ten Canadians met all six criteria. Worse still, four in ten Canadians were marked as having poor cardiovascular health, meaning they only met two or fewer of the marks.

Between provinces, Newfoundland and Labrador residents scored the worst overall on the index on average and British Columbians scored best.

Women also scored better than men and the gap widened with age. Between the ages of 40 and 49, women were three times more likely to have ideal heart health than men.

Good news did come from the study. The sample was taken between 2003 and 2011. Over the years there were notable decreases in smoking, increases in fruit and vegetable consumption and an increase in physical activity levels. Still, even with these parameters seeing improvement, obesity and diabetes worsened.