People in lower income ranges have a higher chance of developing cardiac diseases over their lifetime than those with higher incomes in Manitoba, reported the new Indicators Atlas, released by Manitoba Centre for Health Policy.
The Atlas was released to provide “accurate and timely information to health-care decision-makers, analysts and providers so they can offer services which are effective and efficient in maintaining and improving the health of Manitobans,” said the report.
The report also indicated that overall health in Manitoba is improving as life expectancy is increasing and mortality rates are decreasing.
People who fell into lower categories of income had a higher mortality rates and were more prone to developing mental illness, while those who were better off financially seemed to be in better health.
“The result of this report show that there continues to be a strong connection between socioeconomic status and health status,” stated the report’s section major findings and implications.
“Residents of lower income areas have higher mortality rates and a higher prevalence of physical and mental illness. However they also have more health care services, especially hospital care.”
According to Dr. James Tam, medical director of cardiology for the Winnipeg Health Region, the link between income status and health is something that occurs in most health issues, not just Cardiac diseases.
“Low socioeconomic status has been associated with poor health outcomes regardless of the nature of the disease [be it] respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer [or] infection,” said Tam in a statement to the Manitoban.
He also indicated that there are a number of factors that affect the difference in health between social classes, but one factor is the lack of access for those who live in the Inner city.
He continued, pointing out that there is “differential access to primary care [as] many inner city, low income individuals do not have a family physician or even have access to one.”
He also indicated that poor lifestyle choices such as excessive smoking and alcohol consumption may be factors that contribute to people in lower income ranges being more prone to developing illness.
Dr. John Cairns, professor of cardiology at the University of British Columbia’s faculty of medicine, agreed that some of the factors that could contribute to cardiovascular diseases are self-inflicted, but that there are a number of other factors as well.
“Once you’re [in a lower income bracket], whatever your genetics and prior environment may be, you have less access to health-care services, you’re less aware of these services and you often have associated behaviors that are important risk factors for bad outcomes with the occurrences of cardiovascular diseases.”
“It’s a combination of factors that got [a person] into that category in the first place,” he continued.
Contrast to the trends in urban areas, rural areas in Manitoba have not seen the same trends. “Rural area’s rates were equal across the income groups,” indicated the report.
Theresa Oswald, Manitoba health minister, explained, “Manitobans have been getting healthier over the past 10 years, but we understand that this is not the case for all.”
“We understand that more needs to be done to improve the quality of life for low-income Manitobans, and that income disparity is a health issue for people across Canada.”
The minister said that there is action taking place to battle this problem. An announcement of $212 million in new investments adds to the total annual poverty-fighting investment, now equaling $744 million.
She continued, “Manitoba was the first province to create a department of Healthy Living, which focuses on preventative health measures, including chronic disease prevention and chronic disease management initiatives.”
But despite the fact that there is a very visible trend amongst lower income brackets in Manitoba, the amount of people using food banks across the country have been decreasing for the past three years.
“Manitoba has shown a decline in food bank usage in each of 2006, 2007 and 2008, and the percentage of the population using food banks is declining, according to Food Banks Canada,” Oswald said.
Update: Manitoban’s in lower income ranges actually use medical care more than those in higher income brackets, said Dr. Randy Fransoo, the researcher who led the study.
“Our report shows, visit rates are significantly higher among lower income Winnipeg residents. Although this may seem counterintuitive, it fits perfectly with one of the major themes of the report, that socioeconomic status is related to all kinds of bad health outcomes despite that fact that the poor use more of many health services,” said Fransoo.
