Just one in 10 Canadians have ideal cardiovascular health, according to a new study published in a leading medical journal.

Even 50 per cent of children scored poorly in the groundbreaking study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, which shows that the majority of the population needs to adopt a healthier lifestyle or risk cardiovascular disease — the second leading cause of death in the country.

“The main message is that we need to do a lot better in terms of heart health, if we want to reduce the incidence of heart attack or stroke occurring in Canada,” says senior author Dr. Jack Tu, from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and the Schulich Heart Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

Working with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, a team of researchers developed the Cardiovascular Health in Ambulatory Care Research Team (CANHEART) health index, measuring ideal health behaviours and factors for optimal heart health.

They looked at data on 464,883 people aged 12 years and older who participated in the Canadian Community Health Survey, using six factors: smoking, body weight, exercise, fruit and vegetable consumption, blood pressure and diabetes.

Using those factors, they developed a health assessment tool using a simple scoring system from one to six.

“Prior to this there was no way of quantifying the heart health of Canadians,” Tu says.

Their focus is on prevention, says Bobbe Wood, president of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, “so that people never have to get to the place where they need an angioplasty or bypass surgery.”

People are encouraged to adopt a 0 — 5 — 30 approach to daily living, Wood says. That’s zero exposure to any tobacco smoke, five servings of fruits and vegetables and 30 minutes of exercise throughout the day.

“Those three behaviours will make a huge difference in the risk of heart disease, for all Canadians,” she says.

This index provides a benchmark for future comparison. The plan is to monitor Canadians over the next decade, with the goal to improve the statistic by 10 per cent by 2020. “This is an aggressive goal that we have and we are working to make all levels of Canadian governments work with us,” Wood says.

The study showed geographical variation, with the healthiest population in British Columbia and those in Newfoundland the least heart healthy. Ontario is in the middle. Women are more likely than men to be heart healthy in the middle ages, but similar in youth under 19 and seniors.

Children fared only slightly better — 16 per cent of youth scored well for risk factors, but 50 per cent scored poorly. “Obviously that is very worrisome,” Tu says. “We do know that those who are in ill health when in youth are more likely to get chronic diseases in their future.”

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“These are very preventable diseases, if people adopt the right choices and lifestyles,” Tu says. “But the study shows that a lot of Canadians are not adopting optimal lifestyles and preventing these diseases from happening.”