BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
Sudburians smoke and weigh too much; we have lousy diets, greater levels of disease and disability, and we die too soon.
That?s according to Vic Sahai, the director of the Northern Health Information Partnership. If it were up to him, he?d invest a lot more money in public health.
But he thinks the first step to leading a healthy lifestyle is understanding the problem.
Sahai presented a symposium at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine on disease trends in Northern Ontario last week.
He kicked off the presentation by looking at smoking, which is a big pet peeve of his because it is the number one preventable cause of death in Canada. In 2001, 1,608 people died in the north as a result of smoking, which is a much higher average than the rest of Ontario.
But there is some good news in this area. Smoking rates among adults and teenagers are decreasing.
Unfortunately, smoking isn?t our only problem. It seems northerners are also fond of their booze. When looking at people who consume five or more drinks on one occasion, 12 or more times a year, men in Northern Ontario outstrip their southern counterparts by 10 percent.
Northern women are about five percent more likely to be heavy drinkers.
Sahai also compared body weight in the north to that of the rest of Ontario. No surprise there: we are a heavy bunch.
?As I?m aging, I hate the statistics more and more,? joked Sahai.
About 10 percent more people in the north are overweight or obese compared to the Ontario average. Perhaps that?s because we don?t eat enough fruits and vegetables, he said.
In the north, we tend to eat about five percent less fruits and veggies.
The good news is northern women are taking advantage of screening programs for breast cancer.
?We have to commend the breast screening program for this. We are doing quite a good job in terms of screening. But can we do a better job? Obviously we can.?
All of these statistics add up to a depressing picture of our health status in the north.
Garry Ferroni, who heads up the medical sciences division of the NOMS, said it?s important for the medical school to learn about the health status of Northern Ontario residents. ?The school?s mission is to improve the health of the people in Northern Ontario and obviously to be successful, we have
to be aware of the disease trends,? he said.
