Rural residents of Ontario at higher risk of stroke than their urban counterparts: study

TORONTO – A new study suggests that Ontario residents living in rural communities are at greater risk of stroke than their counterparts in urban centers.

The study, published Thursday in the journal Circulation: Quality and Cardiovascular Outcomes, examined data from 6 million Ontario residents collected between 2008 and 2012.

Researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences found that people in communities with fewer than 10,000 residents were more likely to have a stroke than city dwellers and that these strokes were more likely to be fatal.

Moira Kapral, lead author of the study and ICES senior scientist, said the research did not explore the cause of the disparity, but found that rural residents were less likely to be screened for the disease. various risk factors.

The study found that people in urban areas were at least 10% more likely to be screened for conditions such as diabetes or high cholesterol.

Kapral says that all the deficiencies have virtually disappeared once people have survived a stroke, suggesting that the level of care for patients with stroke was equal in urban and rural settings.

The University of Toronto professor of medicine said the study highlighted some of the health gaps that rural people might want to fill.

"We believe that, for people who have not suffered a stroke, it is possible to improve the identification of risk factors in rural areas," Kapral said at the time. 39, a telephone interview.

The research, derived from numerous badociated databases of medical information in Ontario, found that 81% of city dwellers had been screened for diabetes, compared with 71% of their rural counterparts.

The gap in cholesterol screening was even greater: 78% of city dwellers were controlled, compared to 66% of the inhabitants of smaller communities.

Kapral said the study had also examined the impact of lifestyle factors, such as smoking rate, obesity, fresh product consumption and level of consumption. physical activity.

Data on these were only available for 2% of those included in the study, but they indicated that these factors were also at stake in rural communities. Kapral suggested that smoking rates and obesity rates were higher in smaller communities, while physical activity and consumption of fruits and vegetables were lower.

Kapral said these findings suggest that these factors could also be at play in the high risk of stroke faced by rural residents.