West Coasters among the healthiest in the world

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – West Coasters have a reputation for being active and living well. But it turns out we are among the healthiest populations in the entire world, according to a new report from the Conference Board of Canada.

BC gets top marks across a number of categories in the first How Canada Performs: Health report card that compares Canada, its 10 provinces and three territories, and 15 peer countries — and a lot of it has to do with our lifestyle.

The report gives BC the only provincial “A” in Canada and ranks us third in the world behind Switzerland and Sweden.

“BC is a standout performer,” says Sheila Rao, manager for the Conference Board’s How Canada Performs program.

“This is the first time we’ve looked at performance at the provincial and territorial level. Canada has always been a ‘middle of the pack’ performer, but now we can actually see at the disparities at the provincial level,” she tells News1130.

Newfoundland and Labrador, the worst-ranked province, scores a “D-minus” for placing just below the worst-ranking peer country, the United States. The territories have the worst health outcomes in Canada, with Nunavut ranking near or at the bottom on most indicators.

“To come up with these overall grades, we look at health performance on 10 important status indicators, which includes life expectancy,” Rao explains.

“BC has one of the highest life expectancies in the world at over 82 years. We also look at mortality rates from the top killers within Canada, such as cancer, heart disease, and stroke.”

While the report card doesn’t rank lifestyle factors, Rao says they do look at them as inputs when assessing health performance.

“BC does incredibly well — it has the lowest smoking rate, the lowest obesity rate, a pretty active population — and these are all contributing factors that help explain why the province does so well in overall health outcomes. This is in spite of the fact BC one of the lowest [health care] spending per capita in the country.”

Overall, Canada gets a “B” grade on the health report card, ranking eighth among the 16 peer countries. The Conference Board says while “B” is good, there is definitely room for improvement.

Canada’s only “A”s are on the self-reported health indicators. The country’s worst grades are the “C”s it gets on infant mortality and mortality due to diabetes.

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