Healthy lifestyles not enough to boost Vancouver's grade on health performance

OTTAWA, Dec. 13, 2016 /CNW/ - Vancouver ranks 1^st in the healthy lifestyle and the population health category, but less impressive results elsewhere leads to an overall 6^th place in The Conference Board of Canada's ranking of the health performance of 10 Canadian cities.

"Vancouver residents are leading healthier lifestyles than any other metropolitan area, specifically when it comes to maintaining high levels of physical activity. However, perceived life satisfaction and indicators of access to health care play a role in dragging down the city's overall health ranking," said Louis Thériault, Vice-President, Public Policy. "In all, mixed results across all four categories have Vancouver finishing with an overall "B" grade."

Highlights

• Vancouver finishes in 6^th place with an overall "B" grade.
• Vancouver ranks at the top in two categories: population health and healthy lifestyle.
• Saskatoon finishes 1^st in the city health rankings, placing ahead of Calgary and Winnipeg. All three of these metro areas score an "A" grade.

The City Health Monitor examines and benchmarks the physical and socio-economic health of 10 metropolitan areas in Canada. Each metro area receives a grade based on their performance on 24 indicators, grouped into four categories: life satisfaction; population health; healthy lifestyle; and access to health care services.

Among the comparator cities, Vancouver ranks 1^st in the population health category due to low rates of asthma and heart disease. As well, the metro area also reports a relatively low number of residents diagnosed with diabetes and mood disorders.

Vancouver also clinches the top spot in the healthy lifestyle category, which is largely explained by being at or near the top of the rankings on obesity, physical activity, smoking, and heavy drinking.

While Vancouver received top marks for population health and healthy lifestyle, the metro area posted lower results in the other two categories. In particular, Vancouver gets a "D" grade in the life satisfaction category, ranking at the very bottom in the perceived health and perceived mental health categories. And despite the strong showing in population health and healthy lifestyle, a lower proportion of Vancouver residents report being satisfied with life in general.

Vancouver also posted lower results in the access to health care services category. The metro area places last on the relative number of specialists per 100,000 population and near the bottom on the relative number of nurses per 100,000 population, giving the city an overall "C" grade in this category.

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SOURCE Conference Board of Canada

Yvonne Squires, Media Relations, The Conference Board of Canada, Tel.: [phone] ext. 221, E-mail: [email protected]; Juline Ranger, Director of Communications, The Conference Board of Canada, Tel.: [phone] ext. 431, E-mail: [email protected]

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