The “Health of Canadians” report, a new product from StatCan that will be updated once a year, was released on Wednesday. Those behind it said they found that while many Canadians are making strides in their overall health, others are reporting issues with their mental health, chronic health conditions and lacking access to a regular health-care provider.
The life expectancy for Canadians, which was at a steady incline since the 1980s, began to decline in 2020 and again in 2021, as a direct result of staggering death rates related to Covid-19, as well as substance-related harms that increased during the pandemic.
In 2021, the life expectancy at birth dropped to 81.6 from 81.7 in 2020.
Males saw the most significant decrease in life expectancy that year at 0.2 years, with most men now living up to 79.3. The latest data suggests that women, on average, now live to 84 years old.
Despite 59.7% of Canadians self-reporting their general health as excellent, there’s been a decrease in Canadians, of all ages, self-reporting their mental health as equally good since 2015.
There’s also been an increase in anxiety and other mood disorders, particularly impacting First Nation and Metis people living both on and off a reserve in comparison to non-Indigenous people.
The rate of lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer deaths in Canada, in men has significantly decreased from a reported rate of 72.2 per 100,000 people in 2015 to 62.5 per 100,000 in 2021.
Youths between the age of 12 and 17 reported the highest decline for physical activity, a 14 per cent decrease in activity level in 2021 compared to 2015.
Of the 81.8% of children aged five to 11 whose guardians said they participated in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in the span of a week, only 34.9% met the recommended daily 60 minutes of activity.
StatCan’s findings also included that while 85.5% of Canadians having regular access to a health-care provider in 2021, another 14.4% do not. That equates to roughly 4.7 million people who are still in need of a family doctor.
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