Canadians in rural and northern areas are more likely to smoke or have weight problems than their urban counterparts.
And fewer rural and northern people rate their health as excellent, said Verna Mitura in an Oct. 21 presentation of a Statistics Canada study done in 2000-01 of 131,535 people.
Mitura told a conference examining rural peoples’ health that only 20 percent of rural and northern people say their health is excellent compared to 29 percent of urban people.
Statistic Canada’s data showed that 32 percent of rural Canadians 12 and older smoked either daily or on an occasional basis, compared to 22 percent in major cities.
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In Canada, about 32 percent of the population aged 20-64 was overweight or obese, ranging from a low of almost 27 percent in major urban areas to more than 40 percent in rural and northern regions.
In other health factors, Mitura said while eight percent of all Canadians suffer depression, the prevalence was 10 percent in rural and northern communities. High blood pressure and arthritis or rheumatism were also more likely to be present in rural and northern residents.
When asked whether their health-care needs were unmet, 13 percent of all Canadians said they were lacking compared to 15 percent of those in remote regions.
