Health Determinants & Practices
There are a number of health determinants that play a key role in predicting what a community may need in relation to health services (or the “demand”). These include:
- health practices (e.g., smoking; alcohol consumption; diet; physical activity);
- health status of an individual (e.g., life expectancy; self-rated health);
- health outcomes (e.g., births; deaths);
- prevalence of chronic conditions (e.g., arthritis; hypertension; asthma; chronic bronchitis; diabetes; heart disease);
- causes of mortality and morbidity (e.g., deaths; hospitalizations; potential years of life lost); and
- preventive care (e.g., mammography; pap screens; flu shots).
On their own or in combination with other factors, these indicators affect the health status of individuals and have implications for the need for and use of health resources.
Health-related lifestyle behaviours such as smoking, physical inactivity and obesity contribute to chronic health conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, and can lead to chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and end-stage renal disease. Niagara residents display higher rates of smoking and binge drinking, and lower rates of physical inactivity, compared to the provincial average.
A greater proportion of people in Niagara, compared with Ontario, are overweight or obese (20.3% of Niagara residents are considered obese compared to the Ontario estimate of 15.5%). Obesity and a high Body Mass Index are associated with increasing risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and osteoarthritis.