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TORONTO – An article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests that life expectancy in Canada could be threatened by the same factors that led to its downfall in the United States.
"Some signs are going in the same direction," said Juergen Rehm of the Toronto Center for Addiction and Mental Health, a major teaching and research hospital. "We are seeing the same trends (to a lesser extent) in Canada."
Rehm said that life expectancy in the United States had begun to decline slightly – which is so rare in a rich country that the last time it happened in the United States occurred during The Second World War. Most of the new decline is due to an increase in "desperate deaths": drug overdoses, suicide or alcohol abuse.
The increase in the number of deaths is closely related to areas where poorer and rural populations live, Rehm said.
"Ninety percent of the deaths from desperation in the United States occur in rural areas of the United States," he said. "You can not let large parts of a country suffer a net loss of pay over 10 to 15 years and hope that these people are as happy and as clear as before."
In a commentary published in the newspaper, Rehm said that a similar trend seems to be settling in Canada.
The number of overdose deaths has increased to about 4,000 by 2017. "They had fewer than 2,000 people not so long ago," Rehm said.
Deaths due to alcohol-related diseases, such as cirrhosis of the liver, are also increasing.
And while income inequality in Canada is far from US levels, Rehm cites World Bank figures that show it is on the rise.
"Our life expectancy is increasing, but it is stabilizing."
The findings of a separate document in the same newspaper support it.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, the average life in Canada is 82 years, making it the tenth longest in the world.
But that's only slightly increased from 81 in 2006. And Canada's current ranking is two steps down from what it was 10 years ago.
The same study found that the death rate for mental disorders and addictions increased by 11% between 2006 and 2016.
The agency found that Canadians are generally healthy, although the health problems of an aging population are evolving into disease and disability.
Rehm said that it was possible for Canada to avoid a decline in life expectancy caused by desperation.
Do not make cheap alcohol for one. Rehm refers to dozens of studies linking the price and availability of alcohol and its abuse.
"We have people talking about one beer at a time, or an absurdity of the kind," said Rehm, referring to a popular campaign promise of the Ontario premier, Doug Ford.
Rehm also suggested that doctors re-examine why and when to prescribe opioid badgesics.
"Although Canada has seen half of the opioid prescription in the United States, we are still the second largest country in the world."
And politicians need to think about the impact of what they adopt in law.
"We should allow these policies that at least do not worsen our gap between the rich and the poor."
Rehm does not apologize for straddling the worlds of health research and economic policy.
"I am a statistician," he said. "I am not a member of any political party, I am not a member of any party, I look at the data.
"Will I convince everyone? No, but I will do my best."
– By Bob Weber in Edmonton. Follow @ row1960 on Twitter
The Canadian press
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