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Prairies top preventable deaths list

By: Larry Kusch

Friday, May. 25, 2012 at 8:18 AM | Comments: 0

MANITOBA and Saskatchewan have the highest rates of preventable deaths in Canada, especially when it comes to injuries.

That sobering fact came in an annual report on health indicators from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) on Thursday.

"Preventable mortality rates due to injury in these provinces were about twice as high as rates in Ontario and significantly higher than in other provinces," the report said.

Deaths due to injury cover a wide range of causes, including motor-vehicle collisions, falls, drowning and fire. It also includes deaths due to workplace injuries. The figures were from 2008.

Joanne Hader, a CIHI official, said the institute doesn't know the cause of the higher rates of preventable deaths in the two Prairie provinces. It's a question that needs more scrutiny, she said.

Manitoba had a potentially avoidable mortality rate of 226 per 100,000 people; the national average was 187. In Saskatchewan, the rate was 222. The deaths counted were those involving people under age 75 that could have been avoided by various level of prevention, including more effective health care and other public health practices.

The 126-page report contains a wide range of facts about the health of Canadians, a few of which show Manitoba in a better light.

For example, Manitoba had the second-lowest self-reported smoking rate among Canadian provinces in 2010, at 18.8 per cent among people 12 and older. British Columbia had the lowest rate, at 17.4 per cent.

When it comes to overall life expectancy, however, Manitobans and Saskatchewanians were tied for second-lowest among provinces -- at 79.5 years -- next to Newfoundland (78.5). The Canadian average was 80.9.

Life expectancy for Manitoba men was 76.9 years; for women, it was 82 years.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

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