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.’’

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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