Risk factors for cardiovascular disease in Canada

BACKGROUND: This paper provides an update of the prevalence of important cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in subgroups of the Canadian population. To improve awareness of the impact of CVD risk factor variations on disease burden, smoking-attributable mortality (SAM) has been estimated for the first time for each health region in Canada. METHODS: The 2000/01 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) was used to estimate the prevalence of current smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, low income, diabetes and hypertension. Combining smoking prevalence data from the 2000/01 CCHS, mor-tality data from the 1995 to 1997 Canadian Mortality Database, and relative risk estimates (relating smoking and smoking-associated deaths) from the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Prevention Study II, SAM values were generated using population-attributable risk techniques