Burden, Prevalence and Challenges Associated with Heart Disease in Canada | Healthcare Assignment

Running head: HEALTH CARE
Health care
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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................1
Epidemiological data related to heart disease in Canada.................................................................2
Community based strategies to address the issue in Canada...........................................................5
Changing Canadian health system landscape due to heart disease..................................................7
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction:
Incidence of chronic disease in any developed or developing country is a major challenge
for health care systems as it requires a long period of supervision and observation. In Canada too,
public health is focussing on prevention and management of chronic disease. In 2015, chronic
disease was responsible for about three-quarter deaths in Ontario (Public Health Ontario, 2019).
In Newfoundland, 63% of the residents above the age of 12 were found to have at least one
chronic disease. Among chronic disease like diabetes, heart disease, COPD, cancer and lung
disease, heart disease is a significant chronic disease in the country as it accounted for the
highest number of new cases of chronic disease (Government of Newfoundland and Labrador,
2017). The focus of this paper is to explore in depth about the burden, prevalence and challenges
associated with heart disease in Canada. The report will give comprehensive epidemiological
evidence on the trends related to heart disease in Canada since the last 10-15 years. The
epidemiological data will be compared with data from other developed countries. Lastly, the
report will give a discussion on community based strategies that has been implemented in
Canada to control heart disease.
Epidemiological data related to heart disease in Canada
Heart disease includes all those diseases that cover disorders of the heart and blood
vessels. This may include coronary heart disease and ischemic heart diseases. According to the
heartandstroke.ca (2019), 91, 524 people died of heart disease conditions or stroke in 2016. The
seriousness of the disease is understood from the fact that one person dies every five minutes

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from heart disease in Canada. The review of the Chronic Disease Surveillance data for the year
2012-2013 revealed that 2.4 million adults were living with ischemic heart disease. From the
year 2000-2001 to 2012-2013, age-standardized heart disease has declined, however the
prevalence of the condition has remained stable (Government of Canada, 2018). The rate of
mortality due to the condition was much higher in 1987 as it was the leading cause of mortality
back then. Currently, heart disease is the second leading cause of death. From 2000-2001 to
2012-2013, the newly diagnosed cases of heart disease declined from 221, 800 to 158, 700. The
death rate decreased by 23% (Government of Canada, 2013). This indicates that decline in
prevalence and mortality rate has been seen with advancements in healthcare system. However,
the current problem is that prevalence of heart disease or rate of newly diagnosed case is still
leading to increased hospitalizations and additional health cost. For example, the review of heart
and stroke conditions in Canada in the year 2016-2017 revealed that there were more than 2.7
lakh hospitalizations for the condition. In the past decade, greatest increase has been seen in
number of cases of heart failure (25%) and structural heart disease (50%) which is an indication
that lot more needs to be done to reduce the incidence of heart disease in the country.
(heartandstroke.ca, 2019).
The comparison of the epidemiological data related to heart disease in the year 2017 and
the year 2011-2012 suggests that burden of heart disease is still immense for Canadian health
care system. It has resulted in economic loss for the country because of direct (medical) and
indirect (lost productivity and income) expense. For example, incidence of stroke costed the
Canadian economy about $21.2 billion per year. This figure considers the cost involved in
hospital cost, physician services, lost income and reduced productivity. It is estimated that if no
innovative actions are taken to eliminate risk factors, the cost is likely to rise to $293 billion per