HEARTY HEALTH SURVEY

| leads search for #1 killer

THE NORTH Shore’s chief medical health officer will
spearhead a provincial government study into B.C.’s

number-one killer.

Dr. Brian O’Connor was recent-
ly named the principal investigator
of the B.C. Heart Health Survey,
which will determine the public’s
awareness of cardio-vascular
disease risk factors and the extent
to which those factors exist around
the province.

The survey, scheduled to begia
next month, was recently an-
nounced by B.C. Health Minister
Peter Dueck and federal Health
and Welfare Minister Jake Epp.

B.C. will be the fifth province to
undertake the study. Similar
surveys have already been con-
ducted in Nova Scotia, Prince Ed-
ward Island, Newfoundland and
New Brunswick.

O’Connor, who has pushed long
and hard to get the heart disease
study <ff the ground in B.C., said
when ail provinecs in Canada have
completed heart disease surveys,
‘twe will have a phenomenal col-
lection of data unequalled
anywhere in the world.”

The data will be used to

establish a profile of the country’s
number one-killer and will be ap-

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By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reporter

plied to reducing its threat to Ca-
nadian health.

In addition to collecting infor-
mation for the province as a
whole, O’Connor will also attempt
to establish Icng-term local com-
munity-based programs that will
promote heart dissase awareness
and lifestyles that promote
healthier hearts.

The thrust of the community
programs, he said, will be to re-
educate the public to preventative
rather than curative treatments for
heart disease.

Ministry of Sealth spokesman
Lynne Blair said O’Connor was
chosen because of his work as the
chairman of the federal-provincial
committee on prevention and con-
trol of cardio-vascular disease.

Under the B.C. survey, a ran-
dom cross-section of 2,200 British
Columbians, 740 from the Lower
Mainland area, between the ages
of 18 and 75, will be tested fo:

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their awareness of and attitudes
towards cardio-vascular diseases

and the various high-risk factors

chief merical
health officer Dr. Brian O’C:.caor
«named principal investigatur of
B.C. Heart Health Survey.

NORTH Shore

that contribute to those diseases.
Physical characteristics of survey
subjects will be recorded and the

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cholesterol levels in their blood
determined.

The survey, which O’Connor
estimated would take approximate-
ly four months to complete, will
provide local and provincial health
authorities with an accurate over-
view of heart health awareness in
the province and an approximate
provincial blood-cholesterol level
of the average British Columbian.

O'Connor said there is currently
very little specific information
available.

The raising of public conscious-
ness of the factors that cause heart
disease, he said, is vital to reducing
the killer’s toll.

“For instance, [ don’t think
people recognize how all the high-
risk factors — cholesterol levels,
smoking, alcohol consumption,
lack of exercise — work together,”’
O’Connor said. ‘Controlling just
one alone does not really decrease
the risk of heart disease.”’

The survey will cost $165,500; a
minuscule amount, O’Connor
said, compared with the staggering
medical and social cost of heart
diseases and strokes.

Heart diseases, for example,
have been the number-one cause of
death in B.C. for the past three
years. According to O’Connor,

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3 - Sunday, December 25, 1988 - North Shore News

aad % oe «
. NEWS photo Mike Waketield
RESIDENTS OF Kiwanis Park Lodge in West Vancouver were treated to a visit by Santa this week during the intermediate care facility’s Christmas
party. Each resident received a teddy bear, compliments of North Shore businesses, which created a lot of smiles.

they account for 43 per cent of all
deaths ‘“‘in just about any com-
munity you want to name.’’

In 1986 there were 6,297 deaths
related to heart diseases in B.C.
and 480,335 hospital days absorb-
ed by circulatory-related illnesses.

Across Canada, over six million
hospital days are annually taken
up with the treatment of cardio-
vascular diseases.

According to a federal health
promotion survey compiled in
1985, 15 per cent of British Col-
umbians have high blood pressure
and 29 per cent are overweight. A
further six per cent are obese.

The heart disease study in Nova
Scotia, which was completed in
1987, showed that 71 per cent of
the population had one of the
three main heart disease risk fac-
tors: high blood pressure, high
cholesterol or smoked cigarettes.

‘*That’s an astounding
number,”? O’Connor said. ‘‘Right
now people are aware of heart
disease. But they accept that they
are going to get it and will be able
to go into a hospital and get fixed
up. There is a great potential to in-
still preventative approaches to the
disease in the public, but it is hard
to do because it involves lifestyle
changes.’’

PAGE OWE
PHOTO

NORTH SHORE resident Rene
Gaines holds up her daughter
Nicole for a closer look at ber
first Christmas tree. Merry
Christmas!

News photo
by Terry Peters