To the snarky guy who made fun of my TJ byline that states “writes a daily blog”, here’s the math. 3205 original blog posts here since October 2004. Roughly 3,045 days since I started the blog. Or, an average of one blog per day.
It’s true I have been a little tardy lately – busy doing the day job. In fact, I have been accumulating an enormous amount of primary data in recent weeks. I have interviewed over 70 people for four different projects and if you roll in a bunch of round table discussions and two large forums – I have been talking with several hundred folks over a two and half month period. That kind of stuff you don’t get from Google.
Anyway, I also recently had a look at Canadians’ health data from Statistics Canada. I have reviewed this before but I always find the regional variations interesting.
Saint Johners have the highest perceived health – very good or excellent while Campbelltonians have lowest.
When it comes to life satisfaction, Miramichiers take the cake with 96.3 percent saying they are satisfied or very satisfied with their lives compared to 92.3 percent across Canada. Campbelltonians have the lowest percentage satisfied or very satisfied but still it is quite high.
On the self-reported mental health front, Campbelltonians also have the lowest percentage rating their mental health as very good to excellent. Bathurstians have the best mental health with 72.3 percent rating their mental health as very good to excellent. The mental health outlook in the Miramichi is quite a bit better than it was in 2003.
As for perceived life stress (quite a lot), Edmundstonians are the most stressed out with 28.5 percent saying they had quite a lot of stress in their lives. Bathurstians have the least stress. For some reasons Miramichiers are dramatically more stressed out in 2011 than they were in 2003 (a 50 percent increase) – don’t forget Chiers have the highest life satisfaction scores.
The chubbiest region of New Brunswick is Miramichi with 69.6 percent of adults reporting they are overweight or obese. Monctonians are the most svelt – although that is relative as they are still fatter than Canadians as a whole.
Monctonians have the dubious distinction of being the biggest boozers with 28.6 percent saying they consume 5 or more drinks on one occasion, at least once a month in the past year. Surprisingly, Edmundstonians drink the least despite being closer to the cheap beer. The Miramichiers are among the least likely to heavy drink (self-reported) but the percentage has risen by 21.4% since 2003 (I know I am not supposed to take the percentage change of a percentage but….).
And one the stat that takes the strange case is the high blood pressure in the Fredericton region. It’s not the highest in the province – that disinction goes to Campbellton – but it has risin 87% since 2003. Self-reported high blood pressure in Saint John has gone down.
| Perceived health, very good or excellent – % of Total (aged 12 and over) | ||
| Geography | 2011 | % Change 03-11 |
| Canada | 59.9 | 2.6% |
| New Brunswick | 53.9 | 6.9% |
| Moncton area | 49.2 | -7.0% |
| Saint John area | 58.4 | 10.2% |
| Fredericton area | 57.3 | 14.4% |
| Edmundston area | 50.7 | 8.3% |
| Campbellton area | 43.9 | 2.6% |
| Bathurst area | 55.1 | 17.2% |
| Miramichi area | 52.8 | 15.5% |
| Life satisfaction, satisfied or very satisfied – % of Total (aged 12 and over) |
||
| Geography | 2011 | % Change 03-11 |
| Canada | 92.3 | 1.1% |
| New Brunswick | 93.5 | 2.0% |
| Moncton area | 93.5 | 1.1% |
| Saint John area | 93.6 | 3.2% |
| Fredericton area | 92.8 | -1.0% |
| Edmundston area | 91.3 | 2.1% |
| Campbellton area | 90.5 | 1.0% |
| Bathurst area | 94.9 | 3.6% |
| Miramichi area | 96.3 | 7.0% |
| Perceived mental health, very good or excellent – % of Total (aged 12 and over) |
||
| Geography | 2011 | % Change 03-11 |
| Canada | 72.6 | -1.1% |
| New Brunswick | 68 | 0.6% |
| Moncton area | 65.2 | -5.1% |
| Saint John area | 69.9 | -1.3% |
| Fredericton area | 68 | 1.3% |
| Edmundston area | 67.5 | 7.7% |
| Campbellton area | 59.8 | -7.6% |
| Bathurst area | 72.3 | 9.2% |
| Miramichi area | 71.5 | 13.3% |
| Perceived life stress, quite a lot (15 years and over) | ||
| Geography | 2011 | % Change 03-11 |
| Canada | 23.6 | -2.1% |
| New Brunswick | 18.9 | -21.9% |
| Moncton area | 17.4 | -27.5% |
| Saint John area | 17.5 | -31.9% |
| Fredericton area | 19.5 | -4.9% |
| Edmundston area | 28.5 | -26.4% |
| Campbellton area | 25.6 | -8.6% |
| Bathurst area | 14 | -39.7% |
| Miramichi area | 23.1 | 50.0% |
| Body mass index, self-reported, adult (18 years and over), overweight or obese | ||
| Geography | 2011 | % Change 03-11 |
| Canada | 52.1 | 5.5% |
| New Brunswick | 59.4 | 4.0% |
| Moncton area | 56.9 | 1.6% |
| Saint John area | 58.2 | 2.8% |
| Fredericton area | 58.3 | 3.0% |
| Edmundston area | 62.4 | 5.2% |
| Campbellton area | 61.4 | 2.7% |
| Bathurst area | 62.5 | 13.4% |
| Miramichi area | 69.6 | 8.1% |
| 5 or more drinks on one occasion, at least once a month in the past year – % of Total (aged 12 and over) | ||
| Geography | 2011 | % Change 03-11 |
| Canada | 19 | 14.5% |
| New Brunswick | 21.7 | 6.4% |
| Moncton area | 28.6 | 15.8% |
| Saint John area | 19.1 | -6.4% |
| Fredericton area | 19 | 0.0% |
| Edmundston area | 18.1 | -4.7% |
| Campbellton area | 24.1 | 14.8% |
| Bathurst area | 18.2 | 6.4% |
| Miramichi area | 18.7 | 21.4% |
| High blood pressure – % of Total (aged 12 and over) | ||
| Geography | 2011 | % Change 03-11 |
| Canada | 17.6 | 22.2% |
| New Brunswick | 21.7 | 34.0% |
| Moncton area | 19.2 | 25.5% |
| Saint John area | 17 | -4.0% |
| Fredericton area | 27.1 | 86.9% |
| Edmundston area | 17.7 | 19.6% |
| Campbellton area | 36.1 | 58.3% |
| Bathurst area | 22.2 | 55.2% |
| Miramichi area | 25.7 | 17.4% |
re self-assessments: Would an inmate in a mental health institution rate be likely to rate himself as ‘happy’ or ‘satisfied’? Not sure self-assessments tell us very much, expect perhaps as a measure of delusion.
Happy to for once agree with Richard. Self assessments are pretty relative, you may have a mother on her deathbed so your ‘self assessment’ is ‘I’m pretty happy to be alive’. The CIHI has some good data, what would be intesting to see are things like the proportion who have visited hospitals, have family doctors, are satisfied with the level of their health care, how far they had to travel for their health care, you know, things the government is actually RESPONSIBLE for.
You should post those snarky comments, let others see what kind of morons people can be, no need to suffer alone. Although given the fact that LOTS of people have had blogs that lasted a week or less, in context ‘blogger’ is not exactly ‘doctor’.
And yeah, there you were going off on the unemployed and not working for a whole week!:)