Table of Contents
Page
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1. THE TRADITIONAL VIEW OF THE HEALTH FIELD. . . . . . . . . 11
2. THE LIMITATIONS OF THE TRADITIONAL VIEW . . . . . . . . . . 13
3. MAJOR PROBLEM AREAS IN THE HEALTH FIELD . . . . . . . . . 19
HEALTH STATUS OF THE POPULATION . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
PROBLEMS IN THE ORGANIZATION AND DELIVERY
OF HEALTH CARE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4. THE HEALTH FIELD CONCEPT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5. ISSUES ARISING FROM THE USE OF THE
HEALTH FIELD CONCEPT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6. POPULATIONS AT RISK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
7. CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS AND THE PRESENT
FEDERAL ROLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
8. RESEARCH AND THE HEALTH FIELD CONCEPT . . . . . . . . . 55
9. SCIENCE VERSUS HEALTH PROMOTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
10. CARE VERSUS CURE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
11. MENTAL HEALTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
12. THE HEALTH FIELD CONCEPT AND STRATEGIES
FOR THE FUTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
ANNEX A
3
Ottawa, April 1974
Preface
Good health is the bedrock on which social progress is built. A nation of
healthy people can do those things that make life worthwhile, and as the level
of health increases so does the potential for happiness.
The Governments of the Provinces and of Canada have long recognized
that good physical and mental health are necessary for the quality of life to
which everyone aspires. Accordingly they have developed a health care
system* which, though short of perfection, is the equal of any in the world.
Included in the system has been a program of pre-paid health services which
substantially removes financial barriers to medical and hospital care. Coupled
with health insurance have been programs for building hospitals and for
training more physicians and other health professionals.
The health care system, however, is only one of many ways of maintaining
and improving health. Of equal or greater importance in increasing the number
of illness-free days in the lives of Canadians have been the raising of the general
standard of living, important sanitary measures for protecting public health,
and advances in medical science.
At the same time as improvements have been made in health care, in the
general standard of living, in public health protection and in medical science,
ominous counter-forces have been at work to undo progress in raising the
health status of Canadians. These counter-forces constitute the dark side of
economic progress. They include environmental pollution, city living, habits
of indolence, the abuse of alcohol, tobacco and drugs, and eating patterns
which put the pleasing of the senses above the needs of the human body.
For these environmental and behavioural threats to health, the organized
health care system can do little more than serve as a catchment net for the vic-
tims. Physicians, surgeons, nurses and hospitals together spend much of their
* Throughout this paper the term “health care system� is limited to the system by which
personal health care is provided. The term “health field� is much broader and includes
all matters affecting health.
5
time in treating ills caused by adverse environmental factors and behavioural
risks.
It is evident now that further improvements in the environment, reductions
in self-imposed risks, and a greater knowledge of human biology are necessary
if more Canadians are to live a full, happy, long and illness-free life.
While it is easy to convince a person in pain to see a physician, it is not
easy to get someone not in pain to moderate insidious habits in the interests
of future well-being. Nor is it easy to make environmental changes which cause
social inconvenience when the benefits of those changes fall unevenly on the
population and are only apparent over the long term. The view that Canadians
have the right “to choose their own poison� is one that is strongly held.
It is therefore necessary for Canadians themselves to be concerned with
the gravity of environmental and behavioural risks before any real progress
can be made. There are encouraging signs that this concern is growing; public
interest in preserving a healthy environment, in better nutrition and in
increasing physical recreation has never been higher.
The Government of Canada now intends to give to human biology, the
environment and lifestyle as much attention as it has to the financing of the
health care organization so that all four avenues to improved health are
pursued with equal vigour. Its goal will continue to be not only to add years
to our life but life to our years, so that all can enjoy the opportunities offered
by increased economic and social justice.
In preparing this Working Paper, the Government of Canada has been fully
aware that its concern for the well-being of Canadians is shared by provincial
and municipal governments. It is also aware that the provision of personal
health services to the general public is clearly a matter of provincial jurisdiction.
At the same time there are national health problems which know no provincial
boundaries and which arise from causes imbedded in the social fabric of the
nation as a whole. These problems cannot be solved solely by providing health
services but rather must be attacked by offering the Canadian people protec-
tion, information and services through which they will themselves become
partners with health professionals in the preservation and enhancement of
their vitality.
As in the recent Working Paper on Social Security in Canada, we have
examined all aspects of a major subject without regard to jurisdiction. Only
through such an examination can the problems and their causes be
understood, and legitimate federal responses ascertained. As a result of our
examination we have developed a conceptual framework of the health field
which was outlined in a speech I gave at the Pan American Health Organization
6
conference in Ottawa on September 10, 1973. The concept has been endorsed
by the provincial Ministers of Health, who met in Ottawa on February 13 and
14, 1974. This federal-provincial unanimity of approach offers great
opportunities for raising the level of health of Canadians.
The purpose of this Working Paper, as its title suggests, is to unfold a new
perspective on the health of Canadians and to thereby stimulate interest and
discussion on future health programs for Canada. The Paper is not intended
to be exhaustive nor does it constitute a definite commitment to any of the
proposed courses of action within a specific time frame; many will no doubt
quarrel with the amount of emphasis on different aspects and not everyone
will agree with all the ideas expressed. I would not want it any other way
because it is only through honest disagreement and warm debate that the
broader issues of health can be clarified and further progress achieved.
Marc Lalonde
Minister of National Health and Welfare
7
Introduction
William Paley, in Natural Theology wrote:
“Nightly rest and daily bread, the ordinary use of our limbs, and senses,
and understandings, are gifts which admit of no comparison with any
other.�1
It is these gifts which health and welfare policies seek to ensure for as many
Canadians as possible.
Complete well-being for all may be beyond our grasp, given the human
condition, but much more can be done to increase freedom from disease and
disability, as well as to promote a state of well-being sufficient to perform at
adequate levels of physical, mental and social activity, taking age into account.
Most Canadians by far prefer good health to illness, and a long life to a
short one but, while individuals are prepared to sacrifice a certain amount of
immediate pleasure in order to stay healthy, they are not prepared to forego
all self-indulgence nor to tolerate all inconvenience in the interest of preventing
illness.
The behaviour of many people also reflects their individual belief that
statistical probability, when it is bad, applies only to others. This belief is the
comfort of soldiers at war, criminals and racing drivers, none of whom could
sustain their activities did they not look on the sunny side of risk and probability.
It is also the solace of those whose living habits increase the likelihood of
sickness, accidents and early death.
Yet, when sickness strikes, the patient expects rapid, quality care; all avail-
able resources must be marshalled on his or her behalf with little regard for cost.
The foregoing attitudes, beliefs and expectations are basic to an under-
standing of how the health field has developed in Canada. They explain why
Canadians are prepared to spend such a large part of their national income
on personal health care services, while tolerating environmental and lifestyle
hazards which contribute heavily to the frequency of sickness and death.
8
One of the purposes of this Working Paper, nevertheless, is to show the
links between different kinds of mortality and illness on the one hand and their
underlying causes on the other. Only when these links are known will it be
possible to make judgments on whether certain risks are worth taking or certain
sacrifices are worth making.
These judgments must be made by individuals in respect of their own living
habits, by society in respect of the values it holds, and by governments in
respect of both the funds they allocate to the preservation of health and the
restrictions they impose on the population for whose well-being they are
responsible.
Ultimately, it is to help in making those judgments that this Working Paper
has been written.
9
Government Gouvernement
of Canada du Canada
Chapter 1. The Traditional View of
the Health Field
The traditional or generally-accepted view of the health field is that the art
or science of medicine has been the fount from which all improvements in
health have flowed, and popular belief equates the level of health with the
quality of medicine. Public health and individual care, provided by the public
health physician, the medical practitioner, the nurse and the acute treatment
hospital, have been widely-regarded as responsible for improvements in health
status. Individual health care, in particular, has had a dominant position, and
expenditures have generally been directed at improving its quality and
accessibility.
The success of the Canadian personal health care system, particularly in
the treatment of disease, is unquestioned, and the demand by the Canadian
people for more and better personal health care continues unabated.
Preventive medicine, as exemplified by immunization, has practically
eliminated such scourges as smallpox, diphtheria and poliomyelitis, and
advanced surgical procedures save thousands more lives annually than they
did thirty years ago. Graduates of Canadian medical colleges and of
post-graduate specialty training are the equal of any in the world and Canadian
hospitals have a general high level of service and equipment that matches that
of any other country. In both numbers and skills the members of the Canadian
nursing profession generally provide the finest of nursing care. Taken as a
whole, then, the amount, quality and method of financing health care in
Canada, while still improvable, is one to be envied.
In most minds the health field and the personal medical care system are
synonymous. This has been due in large part to the powerful image projected
by medicine of its role in the control of infective and parasitic diseases, the
advances in surgery, the lowered infant mortality rate and the development of
new drugs. This image is reinforced by drug advertising, by television series
with the physician as hero, and by the faith bordering on awe by which many
Canadians relate to their physicians.
11
The consequence of the traditional view is that most direct expenditures
on health are physician-centered, including medical care, hospital care,
laboratory tests and prescription drugs. When one adds dental care and the
services of such other professions as optometrists and chiropractors, one finds
that close to seven billion dollars a year are spent on a personal health care
system which is mainly oriented to treating existing illness.
12
Chapter 2. The Limitations of the
Traditional View
There are two approaches which can be taken to assess the influence of
various factors on the general level of illness. One is by analysing the past and
determining the extent to which various influences have contributed, over the
years, to changes in the nature and incidence of sickness and death. A second
approach is to take present statistics on illness and death and to ascertain their
underlying causes.
The historical approach is most clearly expressed by Dr. Thomas McKeown,
Professor of Social Medicine at the University of Birmingham Medical School.2
Dr. McKeown traces the level of health in England and Wales back to the eigh-
teenth century, and evaluates the effect of the several influences on the health
level. His conclusions are:
“that, in order of importance the major contributions to improvement
in health in England and Wales were from limitation of family size (a
behavioural change), increase in food supplies and a healthier physical
environment (environmental influences), and specific preventive and
therapeutic measures�3
and
“Past improvement has been due mainly to modification of behaviour
and changes in the environment and it is to these same influences that
we must look particularly for further advance�.4
These conclusions, drawn from an analysis of the history of the level of
health of the population, are not surprising when one recalls the progress in
income security, in education and in protection from public health hazards
during the past century.
The second approach is to examine the nature and underlying causes of
present mortality and hospital morbidity in Canada.
13
Mortality
Looking first at mortality it was found that overall statistics on causes of
death are dominated by deaths over age seventy. Since more than 50% of
deaths in 1971 occurred beyond age seventy, the causes of death in old age
have an overwhelming impact on total figures and thus obscure the relative
significance of the deaths that come before their time. It is the early deaths that
reflect adversely on the health status of Canadians, as far as mortality is
concerned, and they can be properly assessed only if they are separated from
overall mortality statistics.
All of the following figures reflect Canada’s experience in 1971 when there
were 157,300 deaths recorded from all causes, of which 75,200 came before
age seventy. These early deaths are the ones which were analysed.
Of the 75,200 early deaths, 7,600 or roughly 10% occurred before age
five. Of these, 1,500 were due to congenital anomalies, and 3,300 more were
due to other conditions which caused death shortly after birth.
Given that the present high level of obstetrical and neo-natal service can
be maintained, it is generally conceded that early pre-natal care, along with
the early identification of high-risk pregnancies, is the principal means by which
the infant mortality rate can be further lowered. It is also true that economically-
deprived segments of the population, including its native peoples, contribute
disproportionately to the infant mortality rate in Canada. It is also true that the
importance of early pre-natal care is recognized more by the relatively affluent
levels of society than by the under-privileged. Finally, it is true that universal
pre-paid health care has practically eliminated any financial barrier between a
pregnant woman and the pre-natal care she should receive. All these condi-
tions lead to the conclusion that economic circumstances, health education,
attitudes and facility of physical access to health care, as well as improved
pre-natal care, are the principal factors to be considered in lowering the rate of
infant mortality. In brief, environment and self-imposed risks, including attitudes,
are the main influences by which infant mortality rates can be further improved.
From age five to age thirty-five, the principal cause of death is motor vehicle
accidents, the second most important cause is other accidents and the third is
suicide. These three, taken together, account for 6,200 of the 9,700 deaths for
the group aged five to thirty-five. Since all these causes of death are mainly
due to human factors, including carelessness, impaired driving, despair and
self-imposed risks, it is evident that changes in these factors are needed if the
rates of death are to be lowered.
At age thirty-five, coronary-artery disease first appears as a significant (over
5%) cause of death. By age forty it becomes the principal cause and holds this
position in increasing ascendancy through all subsequent age groups.
14
For the age group thirty-five to seventy, diseases of the cardio-vascular sys-
tem accounted for 25,700 deaths out of a total of 58,000. While the causes of
circulatory diseases are various, there is little doubt that obesity, smoking, stress,
lack of exercise and high-fat diets, in combination, make a dominant contri-
bution. All of these are due to environmental conditions and self-imposed risks.
At age fifty, the second most important cause of death in men is cancer of
the larynx, trachea, bronchus or lung. These accounted for 3,600 deaths, male
and female, between forty and seventy. Bronchitis, emphysema and asthma,
in this age group, accounted for another 1,400 deaths. For these 5,000 deaths,
cigarette smoking is a major contributing factor. Once more the root cause is
found in a self-imposed risk.
In order to ascertain and measure the principal causes of early death,
calculations have been made of the years of potential life lost by each cause,
measured against a life expectancy of seventy and eliminating causes of infant
mortality. Years lost due to early death for the five main causes, by this
definition, were as follows for 1971:
Cause Total Years Lost
Motor Vehicle Accidents 213,000
Ischaemic Heart Disease 193,000
All Other Accidents 179,000
Respiratory Diseases and Lung Cancer 140,000
Suicide 69,000
It will be noted that self-imposed risks and the environment are the
principal or important underlying factors in each of the five major causes of
death between age one and age seventy, and one can only conclude that,
unless the environment is changed and the self-imposed risks are reduced, the
death rates will not be significantly improved.
Hospital Morbidity
Mortality rates are not the only indicators of health, so a similar analysis
was made of hospital morbidity, i.e. those illnesses which required
hospitalization.
For analytical purposes, morbidity can be classified under three headings:
1. hospital morbidity, defined as sickness requiring hospitalization
15
2. non-hospital morbidity for which treatment was given but outside the
hospital
3. untreated morbidity, sickness which was self-treated or self-limiting, or
undetected morbidity.
The only available morbidity statistics in Canada, i.e. those who required
hospitalization, were examined. For this analysis, hospitalization due to uncom-
plicated deliveries of babies was set aside on the premise that this is not sickness
so much as a normal part of life.
Diseases of the cardio-vascular system were by far the principal cause of
hospitalization as measured by the number of hospital days, accounting for
7,600,000 hospital days out of a total of 38,600,000 in 1970, in acute general
hospitals. Fractures, head injuries, burns and all other causes arising from
accidents and violence accounted for 3,100,000 hospital days. For these
causes of hospitalization, individual behaviour and carelessness are the
principal or important underlying factors. Mental illness accounted for
2,200,000 hospital days in acute general hospitals but it also accounted for
21,200,000 patient days in psychiatric institutions in 1970.
Self-imposed Risks
The effect of self-imposed risks on these and other kinds of sickness, as
well as on mortality figures, is reflected in the following grisly litany of the more
destructive lifestyle habits and their consequences:
1. Drugs
(a) alcohol addiction: leading to cirrhosis of the liver, encephalopathy and
malnutrition,
(b) social excess of alcohol: leading to motor vehicle accidents and obesity,
(c) cigarette smoking: causing chronic bronchitis, emphysema and cancer of
the lung, and aggravating coronary-artery disease,
(d) abuse of pharmaceuticals: leading to drug dependence and drug reactions,
(e) addiction to psychotropic drugs: leading to suicide, homicide, malnutrition
and accidents,
(f) social use of psychotropic drugs: leading to social withdrawal and acute
anxiety attacks.
16
2. Diet and Exercise
(a) over-eating: leading to obesity and its consequences,
(b) high-fat intake: possibly contributing to atherosclerosis and coronary-artery
disease,
(c) high carbohydrate intake: contributing to dental caries,
(d) fad diets: leading to malnutrition,
(e) lack of exercise: aggravating coronary-artery disease, leading to obesity
and causing lack of physical fitness,
(f) malnutrition: leading to numerous health problems,
(g) lack of recreation and lack of relief from work and other pressures:
associated with stress diseases such as hypertension, coronary-artery disease
and peptic ulcers.
3. Others
(a) careless driving and failure to wear seat-belts: leading to accidents and
resultant deaths and injuries,
(b) promiscuity and carelessness: leading to syphilis and gonorrhea.
Environmental Risks
Turning to the physical and social environment, about which the individual
can do little or nothing, it is generally assumed that all known public health
measures have been put into effect across our land, and that we are protected
through governmental action against public health hazards. On closer
examination it will be found that the application of known public health
measures is both imperfect and uneven. The contamination of drinking water,
as illustrated by the analyses carried out by Pollution Probe in Western Quebec
and Eastern Ontario, is far more widespread than one would have thought in
this day and age. Sewage from a substantial proportion of Canada’s
population is still poured out raw into Canada’s rivers and lakes. Many large
centres still do not fluoridate drinking water, in spite of the low cost and the
preponderance of scientific opinion in favour of fluoridation. So contaminated
are some Canadian lakes and streams that many public beaches have had to
be closed down because of their threat to health.
The total effect of air pollution on the health of Canadians has not been
ascertained with any precision but links have been established between air
pollution and sickness. Direct cause-and-effect relationships are now being
proved and measured.
17
Urbanization, and all its effects on physical and mental health, has not
been assessed in any comprehensive way. Crowding, high-rise living, and the
dearth of intensive-use recreational areas in cities are all contributors to sickness
in Canada.
Working conditions, including the deadening effect of repetitive
production line tasks on the human spirit, take their toll in terms of physical
and mental illness. Workmen’s Compensation Benefits alone cost 400 million
dollars yearly.
One of the most important but least understood environmental problems
is the effect of rapid social change on the mental and physical health of
Canadians. Some of the social change is due to technological innovation, such
as the introduction of television, but significant disorientation and alienation
arise as well from the crumbling of previous social values and their replacement
by others whose long-term effect is still unknown. When a society increasingly
pursues private pleasure by sacrificing its obligations to the common good, it
invites stresses whose effect on health can be disastrous.
Finally, on the subject of the environment, the number of economically-
deprived Canadians is still high, resulting in a lack of adequate housing and
insufficient or inadequate clothing.
All the foregoing environmental conditions create risks which are a far
greater threat to health than any present inadequacy of the health care system.
Conclusion
When the full impact of environmental and lifestyle has been assessed,
and the foregoing is necessarily but a partial statement of their effect, there can
be no doubt that the traditional view of equating the level of health in Canada
with the availability of physicians and hospitals is inadequate. Marvellous
though health care services are in Canada in comparison with many other
countries, there is little doubt that future improvements in the level of health
of Canadians lie mainly in improving the environment, moderating self-
imposed risks and adding to our knowledge of human biology.
18
Chapter 3. Major Problem Areas in
the Health Field
The major problem areas in the health field fall generally into two separate
categories: 1) the health status of the population and 2) the problems involved
in the actual organization and delivery of health care.
Health Status of the Population
Three main indicators of the health status of the population are (a) life
expectancy and mortality rates, (b) causes of death and (c) morbidity.
(a) Life expectancy and Mortality Rates
Life expectancy at birth has increased significantly between 1941 and
1971, from 63.0 years to 69.4, for males and from 66.3 to 76.5 for females.
The main reason is the significant drop in infant mortality, from 61 deaths per
1,000 births in 1941 to 17.5 deaths per 1,000 births in 1971.
Once a male has survived beyond childhood, however, there has been
very little improvement in the number of remaining years he can expect to live.
A twenty-year old male in 1941 could expect to live to 69.6 years of age, while
in 1971 this had only increased to 71.8. For twenty-year old females the
improvement has been more significant, from 71.8 in 1941 to 78.3 in 1971.
These figures reflect a widening gap between male and female life
expectancy, whose gravity is underlined when one looks at specific statistics.
In 1971 twice as many men as women died between the ages of fifteen
and seventy. The actual figures are 43,450 male deaths and 22,150 female
deaths in this age group. In simple terms, death overtook two men for every
woman in these prime years of life.
19
In 1931, women, on the average, could expect to live two years longer
than men. In 1971 this difference had grown to seven years.
Turning to comparisons with other countries, there are only three nations
in the world, Sweden, Norway and The Netherlands, which have a greater life
expectancy for females than Canada, and the difference between Canada and
the best nation is only one year. For male life expectancy, there are six
countries, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland and
Greece, which outperform Canada and the gap between Canada and the best
nation is two and a half years.
Another analysis was made of years lost due to early death between the
ages of one and seventy, using relativity at age seventy. By this definition the
following comparison was obtained:
Years Lost Years Lost
Cause Male Female
Motor Vehicle Accidents 154,000 59,000
Ischaemic Heart Disease 157,000 36,000
All Other Accidents 136,000 43,000
Respiratory Disease and Lung Cancer 90,000 50,000
Suicide 51,000 18,000
TOTAL 588,000 206,000
For these five main causes of early death, as defined, males lost almost
three years of potential life for every year lost by females.
Turning next to the actual number of deaths by cause and sex, one finds
that between the ages of thirty-five and seventy there were 18,400 men who
died of diseases of the cardio-vascular system compared to only 7,300 women.
For each sex at all ages, major differences in numbers of deaths were also
found in the following selected categories for 1971.*
* More complete mortality statistics are shown in the ensuing table.
20
Deaths Deaths
Cause Male Female
1. SPECIFIC ACCIDENTS
(a) Automobile Accidents 4,100 1,600
(b) Other Transport Accidents 500 70
(c) Industrial Accidents 700 55
(d) Accidental Drownings 600 150
2. LUNG CANCER 4,600 800
3. BRONCHITIS, EMPHYSEMA AND ASTHMA 2,800 700
4. SUICIDE 1,900 700
5. CIRRHOSIS OF THE LIVER 1,300 650
From the foregoing analysis, there is no doubt that Canada has a male
mortality problem of great significance.
As already noted, life expectancy is much influenced by changes in the
infant mortality rate and most of the improvement in Canadian life expectancy
can be attributed to a reduction in the infant mortality rate from 102.0 deaths
per 1,000 live births in 1921 to 17.5 in 1971. While Canada’s performance
has been outstanding, it still falls well below that of Sweden with a rate of 11.0
per 1,000 live births. What offers hope for improvement is the difference in
infant mortality rates between certain socio-geographic segments of the
Canadian population. By attacking the problem among high-risk populations,
improvements can still be made. At the same time one must keep the
importance of infant deaths in perspective. Of 157,300 deaths in 1971, only
6,400 occurred before age one and of these many are due to congenital
anomalies about which little can be done after a baby is born.
(b) Causes of death
The graphic at Annex A provides a vivid picture of the major causes of
death for each sex and age group in 1971. It highlights the fact that the
importance of each cause of death varies according to sex and age group.
Noticeable immediately is the tremendous importance of motor vehicle
accidents and all other accidents, which account for large percentages of death
in young males between the ages of five and forty and in females between five
21
and thirty. Suicide is an important cause of death in males and females as
young as fifteen years. Coronary-artery disease becomes and remains the
major cause of death in males from age forty on, and in females from age fifty
on. Cancer strikes at most ages, but at a much earlier age among women.
Deaths due to respiratory diseases and lung cancer are important in men over
fifty years. Cirrhosis of the liver appears as a major cause of death in males
between the ages of forty and fifty.
An overall view of the major causes of death at all ages, with predominant
ages for each, is as follows:
No. of % of All Predominant
Major Causes of Mortality (1971) Deaths Deaths Ages
Ischaemic heart disease 48,975 31.1% 40 and over
Cerebrovascular disease 16,067 10.2% Age 65 and over
Respiratory diseases and 15,677 10.0% Under 1 year
lung cancer and 55 and over
Motor Vehicle and all other 12,031 7.6% All ages
accidents
Cancer of the gastro-intestinal tract 7,947 5.1% 50 and over
Cancer of the breast, uterus and 4,816 3.1% 40 and over
ovary
Diseases specific to the newborn 3,299 2.1% Under 1 week
Suicide 2,559 1.6% 15 to 65
Congenital anomalies 1,967 1.3% Under 1 year
TOTAL 113,338 72.1%
ALL DEATHS 157,272 100.0%
It will be noted that the major causes of death are now chronic illnesses
and accidents, with relatively few due to infectious diseases. This is a drastic
change from the situation around the turn of the century when the major causes
of death were primarily, or related to, infectious diseases such as influenza,
22
pneumonia, tuberculosis, gastro-enteritis, chronic nephritis and diptheria.
These diseases have largely been brought under control, and the only ones
which remain major problems of mortality are influenza and pneumonia, and
certain diseases of early infancy. Whereas the major problems of the past were
acute illnesses, which have a fairly abrupt onset and a finite duration, the major
problems now are chronic illnesses, which have a gradual onset and an
indefinite duration (see Chapter 10), and accidents.
(c) Morbidity
With regard to the incidence and causes of illness, the available information
is more limited and less reliable than it is on mortality. In order to have key
indicators of health, it would be necessary to have a measure of ill-health in
the population, including the whole range of disabilities from the severe
conditions that often require hospitalization and medical treatment to the
minor ailments and mild chronic conditions. However, the only Canadian data
that are current relate to illness treated in hospitals, and to certain contagious
diseases which must be reported by physicians to public health authorities.
Looking at acute treatment hospital morbidity, measured by the number
of hospital days, one finds that diseases of the cardio-vascular system, injuries
due to accidents, respiratory diseases and mental illness, in that order, are the
four principal causes of hospitalization, accounting for some 45% of all hospital
days.
By another measure, the number of hospital admissions, diseases of the
respiratory system come first, followed by child-birth, diseases of the digestive
system, diseases of the genito-urinary system, diseases of the cardio-vascular
system and accidents.
The difference between the two rankings is due to the fact that one measures
the number of hospital days while the other measures the number of admis-
sions. Since hospital stays, on the average, are longest for cardio-vascular
disease and accidents, these are more prominent in the ranking by hospital days.
Hospital morbidity, like mortality, is of limited use in assessing the general
level of health of the population because it reflects only the severe cases, i.e.
those requiring hospitalization. Furthermore, if one makes year-to-year
comparisons, it is necessary to take into account factors other than the rate of
sickness, such as the effect of prepayment of hospital and medical care and of
more sophisticated diagnostic techniques. These factors are difficult to measure
at present.
What is really needed is a measure of the prevalence of ill-health in the
population, counting not only mortality and hospital morbidity, but illness
treated by health professionals outside hospital, illnesses which are self-treated
23
or self-limiting, undetected morbidity, and a count of the chronically disabled.
Only when this comprehensive view is obtained will it be possible to ascertain
the level of health and to identify year-to-year changes. Conceptual and
technical problems need to be resolved before this comprehensive view is
obtained, and substantial funds would have to be made available for surveys
of the population and for the establishment of useful data series.
To operate most effectively in regulating dangerous products there is a
need for accurate, comprehensive knowledge of the causes of accidents and
for the identification of the products, if any, involved. This points to the need
for a broadly-based, well-designed statistical system for reporting accidents.
One of the ironies of obtaining and analysing health data is that it is so
difficult to act upon the conclusions reached. Taking coronary-artery disease
as an example, one finds that it is the major killer and the major cause of
hospital days. Contributing factors are well known and include genetic
inheritance, the relative absence of estrogenic hormones in men, smoking,
obesity, high-fat diets, high serum cholesterol, lack of exercise and stress as
well as such morbid conditions as atherosclerosis, diabetes and high blood
pressure. Yet, when one looks for programs aimed at reducing the prevalence
of coronary-artery disease through an abatement of known contributing
factors, one finds that they are weak or non-existent.
Deaths and injuries due to automobile accidents could probably be
reduced by 50% if everyone wore seat-belts, and if stricter measures were
taken to reduce the number of impaired drivers. In spite of this knowledge the
rate of seat-belt wearing stays at about 10% and alcohol continues to be a
factor in half the traffic accidents.
Cigarette smoking contributes heavily to respiratory disease and lung
cancer. Educational campaigns have succeeded in reducing the number of
smokers in the twenty years-and-over bracket from fifty-eight per hundred to
fifty per hundred but the recruitment of new smokers among teenagers has
increased alarmingly, especially among teen-age girls.
Some 40% of all alcoholic beverages in Canada are purchased by but 7%
of the drinking population, the alcohol abusers. At December 31, 1969, there
were sixty-seven children under the age of fifteen with a diagnosis of alcoholism
in Canadian mental hospitals. One-quarter of all first male admissions to
psychiatric hospitals are due to alcoholism, and the heavy contribution of
alcohol abuse to motor vehicle accidents, poisonings, accidental fire deaths,
cirrhosis of the liver and falls has been ascertained. Absenteeism due to alcohol
abuse costs a million dollars a day to Canadian industry5. Yet the control and
treatment of alcohol abuse in Canada is fragmented and weak.
24
The lack of physical fitness of the Canadian population has been measured
and one criterion, the capacity to use oxygen efficiently, indicates that
Canadians are not as fit as citizens of some European countries.
A study in 1972 showed that 76% of Canada’s population over age
thirteen spend less than one hour a week participating in a sport, and that 79%
have less than one hour per week in other physical activity such as walking.
This same survey shows that 84% of the population over age thirteen watches
four or more hours a week of television. Some 36% watch in excess of fifteen
hours a week. This pattern of living, dominated by sedentary living, explains
why so few Canadians are fit.
Accurate statistics on the incidence of gonorrhea and syphilis are hard to
come by but those that are reported indicate that venereal disease is again
reaching epidemic proportions. Efforts to combat this health problem are at
best of uneven effectiveness.
The common dental diseases of caries, periodontal disease and
malocclusion are not dramatic but in terms of numbers of people affected they
constitute one of the greatest public health problems in Canada. Almost 60%
of Canadians appear to receive little or no dental care, and yet few dentists
are in a position to accept more patients. A greater number of dental auxiliaries
is needed, to relieve dentists of the more routine procedures.
It is estimated that about half the burden of illness is psychological in origin
and this proportion is growing. An indication of the seriousness of the problem
can be seen from the following facts: one-third of all hospital beds and hospital
days are for mental care patients; three out of 1,000 Canadians are hospitalized
in psychiatric institutions at any given time; between 5% and 10% of school
children suffer from mental or learning disorders; there is a significant increase
in alcoholism and drug addiction, homicide and suicide, crime, anxiety
neuroses and depressive psychoses. And yet mental health, as opposed to
physical health, has been a neglected area for years; unfortunately there is still
a social stigma attached to mental illness.
When one looks at the foregoing major health problems of Canada and
their underlying causes it is obvious that we are failing to act on the information
we already have.
The health care system, for all its facilities and for all the numbers, training
and dedication of its health professionals, still tends to regard the human body
as a biological machine which can be kept in running order by removing or
replacing defective parts, or by clearing its clogged lines. The medical solution
to health problems, while an extremely important aspect of health, is only one
25
of many aspects revealed by an examination of the underlying causes of
sickness and death.
If government is, at least in part, a mirror of the people’s collective will,
then the people collectively must accept the blame for any causes of sickness
arising from the deterioration that has taken place in the environment.
In addition to the health care system and the people collectively, individual
blame must be accepted by many for the deleterious effect on health of their
respective lifestyles. Sedentary living, smoking, over-eating, driving while
impaired by alcohol, drug abuse and failure to wear seat-belts are among the
many contributors to physical or mental illness for which the individual must
accept some responsibility and for which he should seek correction.
Finally, the medical research community, with its emphasis on human
biology, must continue to evaluate the direction of its research in terms of the
country’s major health problems and of the gaps in knowledge that need to
be closed if those problems are to be solved. Balancing the need to respect the
independence of the researcher with the need to relate research to health
problems is a question of continuing debate; it is true, however, that the
research community could pursue with more vigour the application of new
knowledge in the environment, lifestyle and health care sectors.
This section on Canada’s health status dwells necessarily on the problems
which still face the country and because of this tends to project a picture that
is gloomier than is actually the case. By comparison both with its past history
and with other countries, Canada has much to be proud of, and thankful for.
This is no less true in the health field than it is in other areas of social progress.
Problems in the Organization and Delivery of Health Care
With the introduction of universal pre-paid medical and hospital care,
Canadian provinces, with federal financial assistance, have substantially
eliminated the spectre of catastrophic medical and hospital bills. Various
measures are also in effect to help pay for other services, including special
assistance to the needy.
There are three overall indicators of the level of health services: the ratio
of various health professions to the total population, the ratio of treatment
facilities to the population, and the extent of pre-paid coverage.
The following table shows how Canada compares with other countries in
some of these respects. The actual years for which statistics are shown vary
slightly according to the availability of the most recent figures.
26
% Covered by No. of Hosp. No. of No. of
Medical and Beds per Physicians Nurses
Hospital 10,000 per 10,000 per 10,000
Country Insurance Population Population Population
Australia 79% (Hosp.)
75% (Med.) 117.4 11.8 66.6
Canada Almost 100% 102.3 15.7 57.3
Denmark 96.7% 89.4 14.5 53.4
Sweden Almost 100% 145.8 12.4 43.7
United Kingdom Almost 100% 111.4 12.5 35.1
United States 85% (Hosp.)
65% (Reg. Med.)
35% (Maj. Med.) 82.7 15.3 49.2
In hospital and medical insurance coverage Canada equals the best of the
five countries chosen for comparison; it leads in respect of physicians, is in the
middle rank in respect of hospital beds, and is second only to Australia in
nurses. Since the countries chosen are among those with the best health care
services in the world, there is no doubt that, by the four measures used in the
table, Canada is among the world leaders.
Canada’s national health expenditures, including personal health care,*
in 1971, were as follows:
As % of As % of Per Capita
G.N.P. Personal Annual
Income Expenditures
Canada 7.1 9.0 306.11
These figures reflect total health expenditures. For that part which com-
prised personal health care only, the per capita cost in Canada was $271.72,
or about $1100 for a family of four. This is a substantial sum by any measure,
even if most of the costs were met by insurance.
* Personal health care consists of services received by individuals and provided by
hospitals, physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, etc.
27
In spite of the great strides made in recent years, there are a number of
difficult problems facing those with responsibilities for providing health care
services:
1. The annual rate of cost escalation has been between 12% and 16%,
which is far in excess of the economic growth of the country; if unchecked,
health care costs will soon be beyond the capacity of society to finance them.
2. The past twenty years have seen an emphasis on the construction of
hospitals and not enough on other needed health care facilities. As a result,
Canada now finds itself with an excess of expensive acute care beds,
coupled with a shortage of alternative treatment, convalescent and custo-
dial care facilities and increasing pressure on hospital emergency services.
3. Medical services are not yet equally accessible to all segments of the
population because health manpower tends to concentrate in cities and is
not attracted to rural or isolated locations.
4. Dental services are not equally accessible to all segments of the
population, mainly because of the cost to the patient of dental care, a
shortage of dental professionals, as well as a maldistribution of available
dental manpower.
5. Present organizational arrangements for providing health care services
could be improved to more satisfactorily meet the needs of the population.
6. Over the years, a large proportion of Canada’s needs for physicians
has been met by the immigration of personnel from foreign countries.
Over the decade 1961-1971, the average annual number of immigrant
physicians was 914. During the same decade, an average of 919 students
graduated each year from Canadian medical schools. This reflects a
problem of dependency on other countries for physician supply.
7. Certain sectors of the population have special health problems, due to
a number of factors such as mode of living and isolation; they require sup-
plementary services which must be provided at higher than average cost.
8. There is a lack of a uniform and integrated system for maintaining
health records of individuals; essential data are scattered in many locations:
in physician’s offices, hospital records, clinics, etc.
9. Health manpower planning is difficult because of interprovincial
mobility, immigration and emigration.
10. Present cost-sharing arrangements between the federal and provincial
governments tend to encourage the use of physicians and acute treatment
hospitals, even for services which could be adequately provided through
less costly means.
28
11. Improved ambulatory health centres, with round-the-clock, compre-
hensive out-patient care are needed in order that accessibility of care will
not be dependent on the individual availability of physicians.
12. Regional health authorities with the power to plan and manage the
health care requirements of a given geographical area are needed.
The foregoing problems in the provision of health care services are
principally the concern of provincial governments, who are charged with
ensuring that adequate health care is available at a cost that can be afforded.
Conflicting Goals in the Health Care System
Some of the problems of providing and financing health care within
reasonable limits arise from attempts to meet conflicting goals.
On the one hand, it is a goal to make physician services equally accessible
to everyone; on the other hand, it is also a goal to permit physicians to practise
where they wish. The result is that physicians are maldistributed among
provinces and between urban and rural areas. At the two extremes, British
Columbia, in 1971, had one physician for every 603 citizens while Prince
Edward Island had one physician for 1,143 citizens. Ontario had one to 616
in 1971 and calculated that by the end of 1973 it had one physician for less
than 600 citizens, in spite of the fact that there is no evidence to suggest that
the standard of health care is improved when the ratio of 1 to 600-650 is
exceeded.
A second set of conflicting goals consists of trying to control costs while
removing all incentives to patients, physicians and hospitals to do so. The
existence of a generous supply of hospital beds and of increasing numbers of
physicians makes it easy for patients to seek care even for minor conditions
and for physicians to hospitalize more patients, particularly when there are no
financial barriers. Thus the goal of ready access to health care services, both
physical and financial, conflicts with the goal of controlling costs.
A third set of conflicting goals consists of providing a balanced supply of
the various medical specialties while permitting physicians to select their fields
of special training. The shortage of physicians specializing in rehabilitation
medicine and in the care of the aged is evidence that mechanisms are needed
to reconcile these two goals.
Fourth, health care administrators would like to see services provided by
staff trained only to the level of skill needed for the task performed. However,
the present licensing patterns for health professionals as well as the fee-for-
service system, coupled with the principle that the physician or dentist alone
29
bears responsibility for his patient, encourages the practice of physicians and
dentists carrying out tasks which could be done by others, as well or better,
and often at a lower cost. In the Canadian North the role of the nurse has been
expanded along these lines with great success. Similarly, the Government of
Saskatchewan has successfully implemented a dental care system for school
children in which a major part of the work is done by dental health professionals
other than dentists, according to protocols established by dentists and under
their overall supervision.
Finally, there is the paradox of everyone agreeing to the importance of
research and prevention yet continuing to increase disproportionately the
amount of money spent on treating existing illness. Public demand for treat-
ment services assures these services of financial resources. No such public
demand exists for research and preventive measures. As a consequence,
resources allocated for research, teaching and prevention are generally
insufficient.
It would appear that steps need to be taken to reconcile the foregoing, and
other conflicting goals and principles, while retaining all that is necessary to
properly reward health manpower, control costs and ensure accessibility to
quality service.
30
Chapter 4. The Health Field Concept
A basic problem in analysing the health field has been the absence of an
agreed conceptual framework for sub-dividing it into its principal elements.
Without such a framework, it has been difficult to communicate properly or to
break up the field into manageable segments which are amenable to analysis
and evaluation. It was felt keenly that there was a need to organize the thou-
sands of pieces into an orderly pattern that was both intellectually acceptable
and sufficiently simple to permit a quick location, in the pattern, of almost any
idea, problem or activity related to health: a sort of map of the health territory.
Such a Health Field Concept6 was developed during the preparation of
this paper and it envisages that the health field can be broken up into four
broad elements: HUMAN BIOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, LIFESTYLE and
HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION. These four elements were identified
through an examination of the causes and underlying factors of sickness and
death in Canada, and from an assessment of the parts the elements play in
affecting the level of health in Canada.
Human Biology
The HUMAN BIOLOGY element includes all those aspects of health, both
physical and mental, which are developed within the human body as a
consequence of the basic biology of man and the organic make-up of the
individual. This element includes the genetic inheritance of the individual, the
processes of maturation and aging, and the many complex internal systems
in the body, such as skeletal, nervous, muscular, cardio-vascular, endocrine,
digestive and so on. The human body being such a complicated organism,
the health implications of human biology are numerous, varied and serious,
and the things that can go wrong with it are legion. This element contributes
to all kinds of ill health and mortality, including many chronic diseases (such
as arthritis, diabetes, athero-sclerosis, cancer) and others (genetic disorders,
congenital malformation, mental retardation). Health problems originating
from human biology are causing untold miseries and costing billions of dollars
in treatment services.
31
Environment
The ENVIRONMENT category includes all those matters related to health
which are external to the human body and over which the individual has little
or no control. Individuals cannot, by themselves, ensure that foods, drugs,
cosmetics, devices, water supply, etc. are safe and uncontaminated; that the
health hazards of air, water and noise pollution are controlled; that the spread
of communicable diseases is prevented; that effective garbage and sewage
disposal is carried out; and that the social environment, including the rapid
changes in it, do not have harmful effects on health.
Lifestyle
The LIFESTYLE category, in the Health Field Concept, consists of the
aggregation of decisions by individuals which affect their health and over which
they more or less have control. The importance of the LIFESTYLE category
has already been elaborated on in the section on The Limitations of the
Traditional View. Personal decisions and habits that are bad, from a health
point of view, create self-imposed risks. When those risks result in illness or
death, the victim’s lifestyle can be said to have contributed to, or caused, his
own illness or death.
Health Care Organization
The fourth category in the Concept is HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION,
which consists of the quantity, quality, arrangement, nature and relationships
of people and resources in the provision of health care. It includes medical
practice, nursing, hospitals, nursing homes, medical drugs, public and com-
munity health care services, ambulances, dental treatment and other health
services such as optometry, chiropractics and podiatry. This fourth element is
what is generally defined as the health care system.
Until now most of society’s efforts to improve health, and the bulk of direct
health expenditures, have been focused on the HEALTH CARE ORGANIZA-
TION. Yet, when we identify the present main causes of sickness and death
in Canada, we find that they are rooted in the other three elements of the
Concept: HUMAN BIOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT and LIFESTYLE. It is
apparent, therefore, that vast sums are being spent treating diseases that could
have been prevented in the first place. Greater attention to the first three
conceptual elements is needed if we are to continue to reduce disability and
early death.
32
Characteristics of the Health Field Concept
The HEALTH FIELD CONCEPT has many characteristics which make it
a powerful tool for analysing health problems, determining the health needs
of Canadians and choosing the means by which those needs can be met.
One of the evident consequences of the Health Field Concept has been
to raise HUMAN BIOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT and LIFESTYLE to a level of
categorical importance equal to that of HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION.
This, in itself, is a radical step in view of the clear pre-eminence that HEALTH
CARE ORGANIZATION has had in past concepts of the health field.
A second attribute of the Concept is that it is comprehensive. Any health
problem can be traced to one, or a combination of the four elements. This
comprehensiveness is important because it ensures that all aspects of health
will be given due consideration and that all who contribute to health,
individually and collectively, patient, physician, scientist and government, are
aware of their roles and their influence on the level of health.
A third feature is that the Concept permits a system of analysis by which
any question can be examined under the four elements in order to assess their
relative significance and interaction. For example, the underlying causes of
death from traffic accidents can be found to be due mainly to risks taken by
individuals, with lesser importance given to the design of cars and roads, and
to the availability of emergency treatment; human biology has little or no
significance in this area. In order of importance, therefore, LIFESTYLE,
ENVIRONMENT and HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION contribute to traffic
deaths in the proportions of something like 75%, 20% and 5% respectively.
This analysis permits program planners to focus their attention on the most
important contributing factors. Similar assessments of the relative importance
of contributing factors can be made for many other health problems.
A fourth feature of the Concept is that it permits a further sub-division of
factors. Again for traffic deaths in the Lifestyle category, the risks taken by
individuals can be classed under impaired driving, carelessness, failure to wear
seat-belts and speeding. In many ways the Concept thus provides a road map
which shows the most direct links between health problems, and their
underlying causes, and the relative importance of various contributing factors.
Finally, the Health Field Concept provides a new perspective on health,
a perspective which frees creative minds for the recognition and exploration
of hitherto neglected fields. The importance on their own health of the
behaviour and habits of individual Canadians is an example of the kind of
conclusion that is obtainable by using the Health Field Concept as an analytical
tool.
33
One of the main problems in improving the health of Canadians is that
the essential power to do so is widely dispersed among individual citizens,
governments, health professions and institutions. This fragmentation of res-
ponsibility has sometimes led to imbalanced approaches, with each participant
in the health field pursuing solutions only within his area of interest. Under the
Health Field Concept, the fragments are brought together into a unified whole
which permits everyone to see the importance of all factors, including those
which are the responsibility of others.
This unified view of the health field may well turn out to be one of the
Concept’s main contributions to progress in improving the level of health.
34
Chapter 5. Issues Arising from
the Use of the
Health Field Concept
The Concept was designed with two aims in view: to provide a greater
understanding of what contributes to sickness and death, and to facilitate the
identification of courses of action that might be taken to improve health.
The Concept is not an organizational framework for structuring programs
and activities, and for establishing lines of command. The rigid allocation of
problems and activities to one or another of the four elements of the Concept
would be contrary to reality and would perpetuate the present fragmentary
approach to solving health problems. For example, the problem of drug abuse
needs attention by researchers in human biology, by behavioural scientists, by
those who administer drug laws and by those who provide personal health
care. Contributions are needed from all of these and it would be a misuse of
the Health Field Concept to exploit it as a basis for capturing all aspects of a
problem for one particular unit of organization or interest group.
A second practical problem is the perennial one of federal-provincial
jurisdictional boundaries in the health field. Since the Concept was intended
to cover the whole health field without regard to jurisdiction, and since there
are very real limits on federal powers, the argument could be made that we
were looking at matters which had no history of federal concern or authority.
The only answer here, of course, is that the right questions must be posed
about the health field before a determination can be made of legitimate federal
responses.
A third issue, more theoretical, was whether or not it was possible to divide
external influences on health between the environment, about which the
individual can do little, and lifestyle, in which he can make choices. Particularly
cogent were arguments that personal choices were dictated by environmental
factors, such as the peer-group pressures to start smoking cigarettes during the
teens. Further, it was argued that some bad personal habits were so ingrained
as to constitute addictions which, by definition, no longer permitted a choice
35
by a simple act of will. Smoking, alcohol abuse and drug abuse were some of
the lifestyle problems referred to in this vein.
The fact that there is some truth in both hypotheses, i.e. that environment
affects lifestyle and that some personal habits are addictive, requires a philo-
sophical and moral response rather than a purely intellectual one. This
response is, that if we simply give up on individuals whose lifestyles create
excessive risks to their health, we will be abandoning a number who could
have changed, and will be perpetuating the very environment which
influenced them adversely in the first place. In short the deterministic view must
be put aside in favour of faith in the power of free will, hobbled as this power
may be at times by environment and addiction.
One point on which no quarter can be given is that difficulties in
categorizing the contributing factors to a given health problem are no excuse
for putting the problem aside; the problem does not disappear because of
difficulties in fitting it nicely into a conceptual framework.
Another issue is whether or not the Concept will be used to carry too much
of an analytical workload by demanding that it serve both to identify
requirements for health and to determine the mechanisms for meeting them.
Although the Concept will help bring out the problems and their causes, and
even point to the avenues by which they can be solved, it cannot determine
the precise steps that are needed to implement programs. Decisions as to
programs are affected by so many other considerations that they will require
the analysis of many practical factors outside the Concept proper.
The ultimate philosophical issue raised by the Concept is whether, and to
what extent, government can get into the business of modifying human
behaviour, even if it does so to improve health. The marketing of social change
is a new field which applies the marketing techniques of the business world to
getting people to change their behaviour, i.e. eating habits, exercise habits,
smoking habits, driving habits, etc. It is argued by some that proficiency in
social marketing would inevitably lead government into all kinds of undesirable
thought control and propaganda. The dangers of governmental proficiency in
social marketing are recognized but so are the evident abuses resulting from
all other kinds of marketing. If the siren song of coloured television, for example,
is creating an indolent and passive use of leisure time, has the government not
the duty to counteract its effects by marketing programs aimed at promoting
physical recreation? As previously mentioned, in Canada some 76% of the
population over age 13 devotes less than one hour a week to participation in
sports while 84% of the same population spends four or more hours weekly
watching television. This kind of imbalance extends to the amount of money
being spent by the private sector on marketing products and services, some of
36
which if abused, contribute to sickness and death. One must inevitably
conclude that society, through government, owes it to itself to develop
protective marketing techniques to counteract those abuses.
Finally, some have questioned whether an increased emphasis on human
biology, environment and lifestyle will not lead to a diminution of attention to
the system of personal health care. This issue is raised particularly by those
whose activities are centred on the health care organization. On this issue it
can be said, first of all, that Canadians would not tolerate a reduction in
personal health care and are in fact pushing very hard to make service more
accessible and more comprehensive. In response to this demand, several
Canadian Provinces have extended insured health care services beyond those
whose cost is shared by the Federal Government. These extensions will no
doubt continue.
More important, if the incidence of sickness can be reduced by prevention
then the cost of present services will go down, or at least the rate of increase
will diminish. This will make money available to extend health insurance to
more and more services and to provide needed facilities, such as ambulatory
care centres and extended care institutions. To a considerable extent, therefore,
the increased availability of health care services to Canadians depends upon
the success that can be achieved in preventing illness through measures taken
in human biology, environment and lifestyle.
In this section some practical, theoretical and philosophical issues arising
out of the Health Field Concept have been sketched out. No doubt other
problems, including those of analytical methodology, will be encountered but
as long as the ultimate goal is kept in mind, which is to increase the average
number of disability-free days in the lives of Canadians, these difficulties can
be overcome.
37
Chapter 6. Populations At Risk
An average is a useful indicator of a general condition but it usually
contains such a wide range of values that it is of very limited use in the
identification and solution of problems.
Life expectancy at birth in 1971 was 73 years but included in this average
were deaths at age one week and deaths at age one hundred years. Similarly,
wide ranges of values can be found in Canada’s infant mortality rate of 17.5
deaths per 1,000 live births. Included are rates as low as 11 per 1,000 in a
wealthy Canadian suburb and as high as 40 per 1,000 in the Canadian
northlands.
The average consumption of absolute alcohol is 2.6 gallons a year per
drinking adult (the drinking population represent some 80% of the total adult
population, aged 15 or over). Converted into beverages, and distributed
among these beverages according to national drinking patterns, this represents
33 dozens of beer, plus 14 bottles of table wine plus 13 26-oz. bottles of spirits.
It has been estimated that some 7% of the total drinking population
purchase 40% of all alcohol sold; this amounts to an average of 15 gallons of
absolute alcohol for each individual within this 7%. Again distributed according
to national drinking patterns this is equal to 190 dozens of beer, plus 77 bottles
of table wine, plus 76 bottles of spirits for each of these individuals per year.
On the other hand, 93% of the drinking population purchase 60% of all
alcohol sold, which amounts to an average of 1.7 gallons a year only.
For every statistical average reflecting a condition in the health field, or in
any social field for that matter, there are a number of “populations� which
contribute very unevenly to the average. Average annual income is a glaring
example of an economic indicator which, if taken at face value, would conceal
the wide spread in numbers and incomes between the poor and the rich.
In order to improve the health conditions underlying a particular average,
it is therefore necessary to sub-divide the contributing “population� so that
attention can be focused on that part of the population which is making the
38
greatest adverse contribution to the average. This segment of the total
population we call a “population at risk�.
When a population at risk is identified, it is necessary to spell out the
characteristics of its profile, so that risk factors can be assessed. Males between
40 and 70 years of age, for example, are particularly susceptible to death from
coronary-artery disease. Within this population the typical high-risk profile
would be of an obese man who gets little or no exercise, ingests excessive
amounts of animal fats, smokes cigarettes, drinks a lot of coffee and works in
a high pressure job. Men such as these are “candidates for coronaries�.
“Risk� is a statistical term which is expressed in percentages or odds. Thus
a man with the many high-risk characteristics outlined in the previous
paragraph increases the odds that he will die from a heart attack before
reaching age seventy. He will not necessarily die from a heart attack and in
fact may live to be eighty years old, but his chances of doing so are small by
comparison with someone who has a low-risk profile. Inevitably, when the
subject of risk is raised, someone will cite a particular case as proof that the
theory of risk is invalid; Winston Churchill is most often cited as a man with
high-risk characteristics who outlived many of his low-risk contemporaries. At
the opposite end of the spectrum, one can always find a skinny, non-smoking
jogger who dropped dead at age forty-five. These illustrations reflect the logical
fallacy of arguing from the particular to the general, and it is a matter of constant
surprise that they are given so often.
In dealing with risk one does not profess to make predictions about
individuals but about the likelihood of an event occurring in a population of
given characteristics. At the expense of labouring a simple point, it is essential
that the concept of risk be understood because the application of the Health
Field Concept depends on it.
Populations at risk are obtained through an analytical process which
matches up three kinds of information: causes of mortality and kinds of mor-
bidity, underlying reasons for their occurrence, and susceptible segments of
the population. The analytical process is not a particularly complicated one.
In its simplest form, it can be illustrated by the occurrence of Downs� Syndrome
(mongoloidism) in new-born children. The morbidity is Downs� Syndrome;
the underlying cause is a defective chromosome; and the population at risk
are the unborn children of pregnant women over age forty.
In a more complicated form, the process of identifying a population at risk
would be as follows: mortality from coronary-artery disease; predisposing
morbid condition: atherosclerosis; contributing factors: high serum lipids,
hypertension and diabetes, obesity, high-fat diet, lack of exercise, stress,
39
relative absence of estrogens, cigarette smoking; population at risk: males over
forty with foregoing conditions or habits.
Traditional medicine, as is proper, will tend to concern itself with treating
the mortality-morbidity end of the spectrum while the course of action
suggested by the Health Field Concept would be to focus on reducing the
contributing factors in the population at risk, once that population had been
identified.
Although the example used, coronary-artery disease, dwells particularly
on causes which fall under the LIFESTYLE category, the technique is not
limited to use for this category. There may be populations at risk due to
biological factors such as high blood pressure, or aging, or due to environ-
mental factors such as air pollution or urbanization, or due to deficiencies in
the way health care is or is not made available, such as the availability of
physicians in rural and remote areas. In every case, however, the target is the
high-risk population as opposed to the episode of individual illness, and the
aim is to reduce the risks in that population.
The multiplier effect of risk-reduction is its outstanding positive feature. For
example, while an elegant heart transplant might prolong one life for two years,
the risk-reduction that could be obtained from achieving even a 50% rate of
wearing seat-belts would save seven hundred traffic deaths a year.
The identification of high-risk populations as targets for national risk-
reduction programs depends on a number of factors including the gravity and
incidence of various kinds of sickness and death, the availability of practical
measures, and the costs.
Some high-risk populations are readily identifiable, such as the “candi-
dates for coronaries� already described. Other obvious high-risk populations
are drinking drivers, cigarette smokers, abusers of alcohol, very fat people,
drivers who do not use seat-belts, and people who live in remote areas where
medical and other social services are not readily accessible.
Some populations at risk, however, can only be identified by subtle
analysis and insight. For example, when one measures the incidence of
sickness and death among children aged 5 to 14, one finds that it is the lowest
of any age group. Of the 157,300 deaths from all causes recorded in 1971,
only 2,000 occurred in this age group. At first glance it would therefore appear
that the 5 to 14 age group was a very low-risk population.
Penetrating to one more level of analysis, however, it will be found that
these years are critical in the formation of habits and attitudes which are
important to health, often for a lifetime. Decisions made by adolescents include
whether or not to start smoking, to use drugs and alcohol, to follow a pattern
40
of sedentary living or of physical recreation, to eat wisely, or to drive carefully.
In respect of these choices, the pre-adolescents are a “threshold� population
which will shortly be taking decisions that will determine whether they will
become high-risk or low-risk individuals in later life. To neglect the health
education of the 5 to 14 age group on the grounds that sickness and death
rates for it are low, would be a serious error.
Digging down to even one more level of analysis, one could identify, within
a general population aged 5 to 14, certain individuals whose behaviour is not
only negative as it affects themselves but who also exercise a strong influence
on their susceptible acquaintances. The phenomenon of adolescents adopting
the values and habits of rebellious peers, rather than the values of society in
general or those of their parents, is not new but the scale on which it is now
happening is truly alarming. In a recent paper on adolescent cigarette smoking
in the United States,7 John S. Tamerin points out that the percentage of boys
and girls aged 13 to 19 who smoked cigarettes regularly had grown from 14.7%
to 18.5% for boys, and from 8.4% to 11.9% for girls, during the two years
from 1968 to 1970, in spite of all the propaganda that has been made in
schools and on television about the dangers of smoking. This trend is also
evident in Canada where, between 1965 and 1972, the percentage of female
smokers in the 15 to 19 age group grew from 22.2% to 33.0%.
In explaining the psycho-social determinants of teen-age smoking,
Dr. Tamerin found that peer smoking practices were by far the best predictor
of adolescent smoking. He also points out the prevalence, among teen-age
smokers, of such attitudes as wanting to be older than they are, of rebel-
liousness against authority and social norms, of impulsivity and risk-taking,
and of poor academic performance. He also found that these same underlying
attitudes could be found among teen-age abusers of alcohol and drugs.
There is no doubt, therefore, that there is a readily identifiable sub-group
within the age class 5 to 14 who are not only themselves at high-risk but who
pull many others along with them. This sub-group may well be a target
population of the first order, even though this would not be perceptible on the
basis, alone, of the incidence of sickness and death.
In addition to populations at risk there are many people who are ill but
whose health care needs, for one reason or another, are not being adequately
met. For these persons, who have gone beyond risk to actual illness, a principal
cause of neglect is that their conditions often do not lend themselves readily
to cure, and they therefore do not satisfy the healing instincts on which the
health care system thrives. The disabled, the chronically ill, the retarded, the men-
tally ill and the aged, to name only a few, exist in large numbers and will in-
crease as medicine conquers causes of acute illness and early death. The care
of these patients is a substantial and increasing proportion of the medical task.8
41
If the needs of these populations are to be met, the values of the health
care system will have to be changed. “Care� will have to be raised to the same
level of importance as “cure� before sufficient attention is paid to the needs of
many populations with chronic or intractable illnesses. (see Chapter 10)
In this section, on populations at risk, it is proposed that programs are
needed which will reduce risk factors among high-risk populations; it is also
proposed that more attention is needed to providing care for populations
whose afflictions do not lend themselves to ready cure. In both cases the target
is a particular part of the overall population, rather than the individual episode
of sickness.
42
Chapter 7. Constitutional Powers and
the Present Federal Role
Any comprehensive review of health activities and policies must, of course,
take into full account the division of powers under the Canadian Constitution.
This section will outline the general constitutional framework within which
federal interventions in health matters must be viewed, and the present nature
of those interventions.
Governmental involvement in health care services in 1867, at Confedera-
tion, was minimal. For the most part, the individual was compelled to rely on
his own resources and those of his family group, and hospitals were admin-
istered and financed by private charities and religious organizations.
Since the role of the State was so modest, the subject of health could not
be expected to claim an important place in the discussions leading up to Con-
federation, nor in the British North America Act, because the Fathers of Con-
federation could not have foreseen the pervasive growth and range of health
care needs of a large industrialized urban society, the advances of medical
science, nor the public expenditures required to maintain high quality health care.
The only specific references to health matters in the distribution of
legislative powers under the British North America Act are to allocate to the
Federal Parliament jurisdiction over quarantine and the establishment and
maintenance of marine hospitals, and to Provincial Legislatures jurisdiction
over “the establishment, maintenance and management of hospitals, asylums,
charities and eleemosynary (charitable) institutions in and for the Province,
other than marine hospitals�. In the context of the circumstances existing in
1867, this latter reference probably was meant to cover most health care
services. Furthermore, since the Provinces were assigned jurisdiction over
“generally all matters of a merely local or private nature in the province�, it is
probable that this power was deemed to cover health care, while Provincial
power over “municipal institutions� provided a convenient means for dealing
with such matters. The provision of health care services has, therefore,
traditionally been acknowledged as primarily a provincial responsibility.
43
Nevertheless, there is a measure of federal responsibility in health matters
which has been expressed over the years in many policies and programs of
the Federal Government. These areas are:
1. Quarantine and the Establishment and Maintenance of
Marine Hospitals.
This power is assigned to the Federal Parliament under Section 91(11) of
the British North America Act. Medical, nursing and sanitation staff are
provided at most ports and airports, in order to protect the population
against entry into Canada of quarantinable diseases and reduce the
incidence of health hazards by common carriers.
2. Indians, and Lands Reserved for Indians.
This power, assigned to the Federal Parliament under Section 91(24) of
the British North America Act, has enabled the Federal Government to
provide health services to Indians. However, federal legislation in this
regard does not stand in the way of provincial laws relating to health
services being applicable to Indians in common with other residents of a
Province.
3. Yukon and Northwest Territories.
A constitutional amendment, the British North America Act 1871, stated
that “the Parliament of Canada may from time to time make provision for
the administration, peace, order, and good government of any territory
not for the time being included in any Province�. This has enabled the
Federal Government to provide health services for the population of the
Yukon and Northwest Territories.
4. Criminal Law.
Section 91(27) of the British North America Act assigns to the Federal
Parliament jurisdiction over “the Criminal Law, except the Constitution of
Courts of Criminal Jurisdiction, but including the Procedure in Criminal
Matters�. This power has been invoked by the Federal Government to
support prohibitory enactments aimed at protecting public health, such as
the Food and Drugs Act, the Narcotics Control Act, and the Proprietary
or Patent Medicine Act.
5. Immigration.
Section 95 of the British North America Act gives concurrent powers over
immigration to Parliament and the provincial Legislatures, with the proviso
that federal legislation has predominance over the provincial. This, along
with the quarantine power, has enabled the Federal Government to be
involved in immigration health services.
44
6. International Matters.
There is no provision in the B.N.A. Act in respect of the distribution of
powers in foreign affairs. These powers were originally retained by the
British Government and were later turned over to the Government of
Canada. While the Federal Government is empowered to act on behalf
of Canada in the foreign affairs field, the Provinces are legitimately
concerned with health matters because of their constitutional responsi-
bilities. Cooperation between the federal and provincial governments is,
therefore, essential in those areas of international health matters in which
the Federal Government does not have specific regulatory jurisdiction.
7. Statistics.
Section 91(6) of the B.N.A. Act gives the Federal Parliament jurisdiction
over statistics, and this enables the Federal Government to be involved in
the collection, analysis and dissemination of health data and statistics.
8. Militia, Military and Naval Services, and Defence.
Section 91(7) of the B.N.A. Act identifies the above as a federal power,
and this enables the Federal Government to provide health services to
personnel of the Armed Forces and to veterans.
9. The Establishment, Maintenance and Management of Peni-
tentiaries.
Section 91(28) of the B.N.A. Act identifies the above as a federal power
and this enables the Federal Government to provide health services to
federal penitentiary inmates.
10. Peace, Order and Good Government: Incidental and
Residual Power.
The preamble of Section 91 of the B.N.A. Act identifies in a general manner
the federal power “to make laws for the Peace, Order and Good Govern-
ment of Canada, in relation to all matters not coming within the classes of
Subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the legislatures of the Pro-
vinces�. This power, together with powers incidental to subjects assigned
exclusively to the Federal Parliament, has enabled the Federal Govern-
ment to be involved in such things as the health of public servants, civil
aviation medicine, radiation protection, and emergency health services.
11. Spending Power.
In addition to the powers of the Federal Parliament to legislate in certain
areas, the Constitution, as it has been interpreted by the Courts, gives it
45
the power to spend from the Consolidated Revenue Fund on any object,
providing the legislation authorizing the expenditures does not amount to
a regulatory scheme falling within provincial powers. The “spending
power� of the Federal Parliament under the Constitution has, therefore,
enabled it to make payments to Provinces and persons in fields where it
has little or no regulatory authority: for example, Hospital Insurance,
Medicare, Health Resources Fund, Health Grants of various kinds, Fitness
and Amateur Sports, etc. In addition, it has enabled the Federal Govern-
ment to undertake research and to provide both information and
consultative services.
The role of the Federal Government is necessarily circumscribed by its
powers but the Health Side of the Department of National Health and Welfare
now finds itself, thirty years after its creation, with numerous, varied and
important activities which have been developed over time, in collaboration
with the Provinces, to cope with evolving changes in the health needs of
Canadians.
To illustrate the full range of health problems which face the Department
of National Health and Welfare one needs only to enumerate the kinds of
things which it has undertaken to do. These programs and activities will be
described within the context of the Health Field Concept, that is, in terms of
HUMAN BIOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, LIFESTYLE, and HEALTH CARE
ORGANIZATION.
Taking HUMAN BIOLOGY first, the Department proper finances research
in two ways: by grants or contracts to outside researchers either in problems
of public health or in problems directly related to departmental activities, or by
the direct conduct of research in its own laboratories, such as the Food and
Drug Laboratories.
The most extensive research funding in HUMAN BIOLOGY comes from
the Medical Research Council which is not a part of the Department but reports
directly to Parliament through the Minister of National Health and Welfare. Its
main function, as set out in the Medical Research Council Act, is to “promote,
assist and undertake basic, applied and clinical research in Canada in the
health sciences, other than public health research�. Its more detailed objectives
are: “to expand the scientific and technical base for health care, to improve
the application of scientific principles to health care, to ensure an adequate
research base for education in the health sciences, to support research
contributing to new knowledge in the health sciences, and to support the
training of research investigators in the health sciences.�9
To achieve the above objectives, the Council pays grants and scholarships
in aid of operating and equipment requirements for research projects, supports
46
investigators and research trainees, provides incentives for the development
of research in highly productive fields where major contributions may be
expected and in fields or regions where research is not adequately developed,
and supports symposia, international scientific activities and the exchange of
scientists with other countries.
Under the ENVIRONMENT category of the Health Field Concept, the
Department of National Health and Welfare administers the Food and Drugs
Act, (excepting parts of Section 23 and Sub-section 25(4) thereof, which are
administered by the Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs), the
Proprietary or Patent Medicine Act, part of the Narcotic Control Act, part of
the Hazardous Products Act, and the Radiation Emitting Devices Act; and
Regulations in force under these Acts.
These Acts and Regulations provide the Department with authority for the
control of:
1. Food Quality and Hazards.
Including nutritional content, microbial hazards, and chemical hazards
both added and natural.
2. Drug Quality and Hazards.
Including assessment of effectiveness and wise use of drugs; microbial and
chemical hazards in the drug and cosmetic supplies; and control of the
movement of narcotic and other drugs subject to abuse from the licit to
the illicit market.
3. Environmental Quality and Hazards.
Including assessment of the health effects of environmental pollutants;
assessment and control of health hazards and effectiveness of medical
devices, radiation emitting devices and, with the Department of Consumer
and Corporate Affairs, hazardous products; assessment of health effects
of technological and sociological environments.
4. Health Surveillance.
Including through the Laboratory Centre for Disease Control the provision
of national health and disease information; the provision of a national
reference service for the identification of disease producing bacteria,
viruses and parasites; and the assessment and improvement of laboratory
diagnostic procedures.
47
Canadians must also be protected against aircraft accidents due to pilot
failure, a health hazard about which they can do nothing themselves. The
Department’s role in Civil Aviation Medicine is to provide a total Aviation
Medicine Service to the Ministry of Transport including:
1. The determination of health standards for licensing pilots, aircrew and
air traffic controllers.
2. The medical assessment of individual applicants.
3. Assistance with flight safety and accident prevention programs.
4. Aviation medicine research and development.
Greatly increased international travel has augmented the danger of
communicable diseases being “imported� into Canada. The Department’s
Quarantine Service provides protection through medical, nursing and sanita-
tion staff at most ports and airports.
Still in the ENVIRONMENT category, the Department, in collaboration
with the Department of Manpower and Immigration, protects the population
against the entry into Canada of immigrants who may have serious health
problems. Medical examinations or medical assessments are made of persons
seeking entry into Canada as immigrants.
The Department is also involved in the monitoring and enforcing of various
sanitary and public health codes for property under federal jurisdiction,
common interprovincial carriers, ports and airports.
As part of its special responsibilities for providing health services in the
Yukon and Northwest Territories, the Department is concerned with the
hydraulics, chemistry and microbiology of providing good water, safe milk,
safe food and safe sewage disposal, as well as with natural and industrial factors
affecting health.
Societal hazards of increasing importance to health are under surveillance
by the Department, including the effects of rapid social changes imposed on
people by the physical, technological and economic phenomena that now
exist and are emerging.
In the third category of the Health Field Concept, namely LIFESTYLE,
the Department now carries out activities in the following areas:
1. Drug Abuse: The Department promotes, develops and implements
measures to deal with the problems of the non-medical use of drugs
including the promotion and evaluation of research and studies, the
analysis and dissemination of data, the provision of analytical services and
the promotion of innovative services.
48
2. Alcohol Abuse: The Department undertakes activities related to
alcohol abuse. These include determining the nature, extent and implica-
tions of the problem of alcohol abuse.
3. Tobacco Smoking: The health hazards of cigarette smoking have
been well documented and publicized through education and advertising
activities. Research and control activities are also carried out.
4. Fitness and Recreation: The Department administers the Fitness
and Amateur Sports Act and provides funds for the National Sport and
Recreation Center. Two directorates, Recreation Canada and Sport
Canada, recommend grants and provide services in mass physical recrea-
tion and competitive sports respectively. Services are also provided to the
National Advisory Council on Fitness and Amateur Sport.
5. Nutrition: The Department, through its Health Protection Branch, has
recently carried out a national nutrition survey to assess the nutritional
status and dietary intake of Canadians. Reliable data were collected,
identifying nutritional deficiencies, their incidence and their relationship to
age, sex, dietary habits, income and region.
6. Indian and Northern Health Services: The Department has
undertaken some activities to encourage Indians and Northern residents
to pursue lifestyles conducive to good health; health stations and centres
have been engaged in teaching public health practices. Included are
special programs for training native persons as health educators, for
alcohol abuse and for fitness and recreation.
7. Personal Health: The Department has developed health standards
and guides, promoted health education and provided information and
consulting services in such fields of health as mental, dental, child and
maternal, chronic illnesses, aging, rehabilitation and family planning.
8. Contagious Diseases: Of special importance has been the initiation
of measures to control gonorrhea and syphilis.
The fourth and final category of the Health Field Concept is HEALTH
CARE ORGANIZATION, defined as all the people, facilities and systems
involved in providing personal health care. In this category federal programs
and activities are as follows:
1. Health Care Accessibility: Under the Hospital Insurance and
Diagnostic Services Act and the Medical Care Act, the Federal Govern-
ment makes contributions to Provinces amounting to some 50% of the
49
cost of providing hospital care, medical care and diagnostic services. As
conditions for the receipt of this money, amounting to nearly 2,300 millions
of dollars in 1973 [including transfers to Quebec under the Established
Programs (Interim Arrangements) Act], the provinces agree to ensure
portability and universality of coverage, and accessibility and compre-
hensiveness of service.
2. Health Manpower: The Department of National Health and Welfare
acts as a focus for cooperative efforts to improve the quality, supply,
productivity and distribution of health manpower. This includes the
provision of technical and consultative services.
Financial assistance for training is provided by the Department under the
Professional Training Grant program. There is also a federal Health
Resources Fund of 500 million dollars to be spent by Provinces over a
fifteen-year period in the acquisition, construction or renovation of health
training and research facilities.
3. Health Services Improvement: The Department provides special
services to Provinces to assist them in developing national priorities and
standards for health care systems; it assists Provinces, institutions and
individual researchers in conducting research studies directed at making
the systems more efficient; and provides consulting services on regional
planning, quality and quantity assessment of medical and hospital care
use, nursing, dietetics, industrial engineering and facility design.
4. International Health Services: The Department coordinates
Canadian participation in the World Health Organization (WHO), the Pan
American Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Commission
on Narcotic Drugs, and other international agencies in the health field.
5. Emergency Health Services: The Civil Emergency Measures
Planning Order places upon the Minister of National Health and Welfare
the specific responsibility for having adequate health services for a national
emergency. Plans and services at the provincial and municipal levels are
developed in collaboration with relevant authorities.
6. Indian Health Services: Section 91(24) of the British North America
Act places legislative responsibility for Indians and lands reserved for the
Indians with the Parliament of Canada. Although the Indian Treaties
mention specific matters affecting the lives of Indians, only one mentions
medical care. Treaty Number 6, covering Indians in part of West Central
50
Saskatchewan and East Central Alberta, provided “that a medical chest
shall be kept at the house of each Indian Agent for the use and benefit of
the Indians at the discretion of such Agent�.
Judicial decisions have concluded that the Treaty does not vest in the
Indians covered by it a legal right to be served by free medical services.
Nonetheless, the Federal Government through the Appropriations and
other Acts has provided various services affecting the general welfare of
Indians, including hospital and medical care. The Provinces also have
provided certain services to Indians as Canadian citizens and residents of
the Provinces. The nature of these services and the responsibility for
providing them is constantly under review.
7. Northern Health Services: Prior to 1954, health care in the Yukon
and Northwest Territories was dependent on the interest of corporations,
the enterprise of individuals, private institutions, physicians and mis-
sionaries. In 1954, the Federal Government assumed administrative
functions akin to those of a provincial health department on behalf of the
Territorial Governments. The Department of National Health and Welfare
assists the Territorial Governments in the operation of hospital and medical
insurance plans.
Services include: treatment by departmental staff, and facilities including
hospitals, nursing stations, health centres and health stations; health care
arrangements with private practitioners and health agencies; public health
services and health education; advice to territorial authorities on health
matters and advice to the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern
Development on northern problems with health aspects.
8. Prosthetic Services: Since 1965, the Department has been
administering the Prosthetics Services formerly administered by the
Department of Veterans� Affairs. This was done in order to extend the
service beyond veterans only. The Department provides a total limb, brace
and orthopaedic shoe service to veterans, and also to the general
population where arrangements have been made with a Province.
9. Public Service Health: The Department provides diagnostic
counselling, preventive, occupational and advisory services on health
matters to federal Public Service employees.
The foregoing activities in HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION emanate
from the Department of National Health and Welfare. The nature and costs
of all activities are reflected by the following table of departmental expenditures:
51
DISTRIBUTION OF GROSS HEALTH EXPENDITURES, NATIONAL
HEALTH AND WELFARE, FISCAL YEARS 1969-70 TO 1973-74
1. DISTRIBUTION � ($ Millions)
Human Health Care
Year Biology* Environment Lifestyle Organization**
1969-70 31.2 21.5 12.0 1,255.8
1970-71 34.4 24.2 12.7 1,552.1
1971-72 36.1 26.3 23.3 1,903.2
1972-73 38.1 34.9 28.9 2,095.5
1973-74 40.1 38.4 45.4 2,320.4
2. PERCENTAGE AND DOLLAR INCREASE 1969-70 TO 1973-74
Percentage $ Millions
HUMAN BIOLOGY* 29%*** 8.9
ENVIRONMENT 70% 16.9
LIFESTYLE 278% 33.4
HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION 85% 1,064.6
*MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL BUDGET ONLY:
EXCLUDES ASPECTS OF HUMAN BIOLOGY DEALT WITH
THROUGH NATIONAL HEALTH GRANTS AND
DEPARTMENTAL LABORATORIES.
**INCLUDES FISCAL REIMBURSEMENTS TO QUEBEC UNDER THE
ESTABLISHED PROGRAM (INTERIM ARRANGEMENTS) ACT:
($ MILLIONS)
1969-70 291.8
1970-71 310.1
1971-72 377.2
1972-73 398.6
1973-74 436.9
***IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THE BUDGET OF THE MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
HAS MORE THAN QUADRUPLED SINCE 1966.
Among the many other Federal Departments whose activities have an effect
on health, one of the most important is the Department of Veterans� Affairs
which is responsible for providing or financing health care to qualified veterans,
and, under contract, to the R.C.M.P. Pursuant to a Cabinet decision dated
December 5, 1963, some of the D.V.A. hospitals have been turned over to
provincial authorities. Such transfers are made in the joint interests of the
veterans and the community, and are facilitated by medical care and hospital
insurance plans. Health Services to veterans in 1972 cost the Department
76,999,000 dollars.
52
The Department of Labour administers The Canada Labour Code and,
under Part 4, The Safety of Employees, issues regulations governing conditions
of work for employees in the federal field of jurisdiction, both private and public
sectors. Not only is direct control exercised for a working population of 750,000
but the regulations are models that increasingly are being adopted as standards
by other jurisdictions. The medical fitness standards of commercial motor
vehicle drivers, and hearing conservation standards, are two illustrative fields
where federal initiatives are leading to a national upgrading of these require-
ments. Supplementing this regulatory and leadership role, the Department of
Labour provides an educational and technical information service in the field
of employment accident prevention generally.
The Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs has the main
responsibility for administering the Hazardous Products Act and Regulations.
Accidents (exclusive of motor vehicle accidents) are the second most important
cause of death between the ages 5 and 35, causing not only the loss of
enjoyment of life but economic loss and heavy medical and hospital expenses.
Many of these accidents occur in the home and a significant proportion involve
household products, some of which could be regulated under the Hazardous
Products Act and Regulations.
Under the Hazardous Products Act the sale, advertisement or importation
of certain dangerous products is forbidden, while the importation, advertising
and sale of others is permitted only under specified conditions including,
among other things, adequate warning to the consumer of the hazards
associated with the possession and use of such products. The Hazardous
Products Regulations are being constantly extended to cover products found
to be dangerous to health.
The Department of National Defence maintains health services and
facilities for uniformed personnel, consistent with its need to maintain a state
of preparedness for military emergencies, and the Penitentiaries Service
provides or finances health care for inmates.
If one defines health in its broadest sense there is a multitude of other
related federal activities, including the National Parks Services, the Department
of the Environment, the Ministry of Transport, and the cultural activities of the
Department of the Secretary of State.
Finally, at the most basic health level of all, the Federal Government has
important activities in maintaining economic progress and in ensuring, through
a redistribution of income, that most Canadians can provide for the essentials
of life, which is a prerequisite to both the reduction of morbidity and mortality
as well as to the enhancement of the quality of life.
53
This extended description of the federal role was necessary in order to
illuminate the strengths and limitations of federal authority. But it must be
noted, once more, that the main burden of providing personal health care to
Canadians still falls on the provincial governments. They must not only
administer the personal health care system, including the sharing of the
financing of professional and institutional services, but must also carry heavy
responsibilities in the education of health professionals and in a multitude of
provincial programs where the impact on health is a major consideration. The
school system, the environmental control system, the system for providing
recreation and the rules governing safety and health in industry and on the
highway are only some of the areas of major provincial concern. Escalating
health care costs and defects in the accessibility of health care to those who
need it are still major problems with which Provinces must grapple.
54
Chapter 8. Research and the Health
Field Concept
Many issues in health research were brought out at a National Symposium
on Health Research Priorities held at McGill University on May 25, 1973. With
some three hundred participants and nineteen speakers, this Symposium
provided a platform for the many, and sometimes conflicting, points of view
of the health research community in Canada.
As might be expected most speakers favoured their respective fields, with
basic researchers asking for increased support of basic research, clinical
researchers asking for more funds for clinical research and so on. In spite of
this, a certain pattern emerged with the following points:
1. Health research, in its broadest terms, including basic, clinical, socio-
medical and organizational, is under-financed when account is taken of
the fact that health care is a seven billion dollar industry in Canada.
2. Of the money that is spent on research, an insufficient proportion is
allocated to clinical, socio-medical and organizational aspects of health
and health care.
3. Many proven advances resulting from basic and clinical research are
not being applied at the level of the practising physician.
The application of the Health Field Concept, by which answers to health
problems will be sought in each of the four categories of HUMAN BIOLOGY,
ENVIRONMENT, LIFESTYLE and HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION, puts
a heavy burden on research. This burden:
first, is the traditional one of adding to the store of knowledge of basic
human biology;
second, much research is needed to determine and measure the effects of
various environmental hazards to both mental and physical health;
third, research is needed to identify the links between the living habits, or
lifestyle, of individuals, and the levels of both mental and physical health;
55
fourth, more clinical research is needed to convert knowledge of human
biology into application at the point where personal health care is
provided;
fifth, studies are required to improve the cost, accessibility and effectiveness
of the health care system;
sixth, studies are needed to find out how Canadians can be influenced to
take more individual responsibility for the health of their minds and bodies,
and for reducing the risks which they impose on themselves by neglecting
important lifestyle health factors.
If all the foregoing research requirements are to be pursued with vigour it
will be necessary for researchers in all fields to develop a unity of purpose which
has often been lacking because of the destructive competition for limited funds.
Balanced progress in all fields can only be obtained when researchers pull
together toward the common objective of raising the health status of
Canadians.
56
Chapter 9. Science Versus Health
Promotion
The spirit of enquiry and skepticism, and particularly the Scientific Method,
so essential to research, are, however, a problem in health promotion. The
reason for this is that science is full of “ifs�, “buts�, and “maybes� while
messages designed to influence the public must be loud, clear and
unequivocal. To quote I Corinthians, Chapter XIV, Verse 8:
“If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the
battle?�
The scientific proof underlying cause-and-effect relationships between, on
the one hand, environment and lifestyle and, on the other, sickness and death,
is fraught with disagreement. Without looking too hard we can find scientists
on both sides of the following questions:
(a) does exercise lessen the likelihood, or abate the severity, of coronary
artery disease?
(b) is obesity an important contributory factor to sickness and death?
(c) does marijuana have any serious long-term effects?
(d) does the ingestion of high levels of fatty foods and cholesterol increase
the likelihood of coronary-artery disease?
(e) is frequent self-medication, particularly with over-the-counter drugs,
bad?
Even such a simple question as whether one should severely limit his
consumption of butter and eggs can be a subject of endless scientific debate.
Faced with conflicting scientific opinions of this kind, it would be easy for
health educators and promoters to sit on their hands; it certainly makes it easy
for those who abuse their health to find a ready “scientific� excuse.
But many of Canada’s health problems are sufficiently pressing that action
has to be taken on them even if all the scientific evidence is not in. The Chinese
57
have an expression “Moi Sui� (pronounced MOO SUE) which means “to
touch, to feel, to grope around�. It reflects a deliberate approach to innovative
and creative action even when scientific certainty and predictability are in
question.
The scientific community, then, needs to make special efforts to resolve
some of the debates on health-related questions of the environment and
lifestyle. Until it does, the principle of “Moi Sui� will be applied in promoting
health according to the following hypotheses which now appear sufficiently
valid to warrant taking positive action:
1. It is better to be slim than fat.
2. The excessive use of medication is to be avoided.
3. It is better not to smoke cigarettes.
4. Exercise and fitness are better than sedentary living and lack of fitness.
5. Alcohol is a danger to health, particularly when driving a car.
6. Mood-modifying drugs are a danger to health unless controlled by a
physician.
7. Tranquillity is better than excess stress.
8. The less polluted the air is, the healthier it is.
9. The less polluted the water is, the healthier it is.
In due course the validity of the foregoing and similar hypotheses will likely
be resolved in a scientific way, precise cause-and-effect relationships will be
ascertained and measured, and the exact significance of each factor
determined.
Meanwhile, major health problems lie before us and we must move ahead
with programs on precepts such as the foregoing. The scientific “yes, but� is
essential to research but for modifying the behaviour of the population it
sometimes produces the “uncertain sound� that is all the excuse needed by
many to cultivate and tolerate an environment and lifestyle that is hazardous
to health.
58
Chapter 10. Care Versus Cure
Trained in a system which focuses its attention on curing illness, the
medical practitioner deals effectively with the problems of infectious disease,
with episodes of acute illness and with accidents that call for the high technology
of the hospital.
During the past fifty years, infectious diseases, other than respiratory
infections and venereal diseases, have largely been brought under control. Of
the ten major causes of death in 1900, six were either infectious or related to
infectious processes. In 1970, none of the ten major causes of death were
infectious except influenza-pneumonia and certain diseases of early infancy.
Today the list is headed by chronic diseases and accidents.
Chronic diseases also afflict large numbers of the living for long periods of
their lives. As health has improved in early life so has the prevalence of the less
tractable forms of disability in later life.
Many chronic diseases are a consequence of aging and as the number of
survivors into old age increases so do the cases of chronic diseases. In respect
of chronic illnesses, all who are over sixty years of age are members of a
“population at risk� in respect of heart and circulatory disease, cancer, arthritis,
rheumatism, diabetes and other chronic diseases connected to the aging
process. As health programs succeed in extending the life of more Canadians,
the number of aged will increase and their needs will augment accordingly.
Unless training programs for health professionals specializing in the care of the
aged are expanded, these urgent needs will not be met.
Other important populations, at all ages, with permanent or chronic illness
include the severely retarded, those with emotional disorders and those
disabled by accidents.
For a health care system whose essential motivation is based on curing
the sick, the treatment of the chronically ill is not very satisfying because the
treatment is long and in many cases success cannot be measured by cure so
much as by controlling the disability created by a chronic condition.
59
The number of physicians specializing in the treatment of patients with
chronic and disabling conditions of an indefinite duration is, therefore, small
relative to the number who specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of acute
illness. There are, for instance, only one hundred physicians in Canada who
specialize in physical medicine and rehabilitation, a ratio of one for every
200,000 Canadians. Specialists in geriatrics are equally scarce.
Turning to treatment institutions one finds the same imbalance, with an
emphasis on acute hospital beds and a scarcity of beds for patients requiring
extended care for chronic illness.
Somehow, the value system of the HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION will
have to be revised so that the care of the chronically ill will be seen to be as
rewarding as the cure of acute conditions. The need for this revision of the
value system is already pressing and will become more so as the percentage
of the aged in Canada’s population increases.
In 1965 only 8% of Canada’s population exceeded 65 years of age. By
the year 2000 the proportion will have grown to 11%, based on today’s
survival rates. Even at a stabilized rate of growth they will number some
3.2 million people of a total estimated population of 29 million. Should
measures to reduce environmental and lifestyle risks prove successful, the
survival rate to age 65 will be even higher.
Raising “care� to the level of “cure� in the value system of the HEALTH
CARE ORGANIZATION is of critical importance if resources are to be
marshalled on behalf of the chronically ill, who constitute a large and growing
part of our population.
In redirecting some concern toward the chronically ill, it may well prove
fruitful for chronic care in clinics and institutions to be provided by nursing
personnel trained to carry out procedures and provide counselling in areas
now requiring the intervention of a physician. Where chronic care clinics of
this kind have been established, such as at the Kaiser-Permanente Foundation,
Oakland, California, it has been found that four nurses in collaboration with
one physician can deliver as much care as four physicians, and at a much
lower cost.
60
Chapter 11. Mental Health
The social stigma attached to mental illness is still so strong and generates
such feelings of guilt that the subject is rarely discussed openly except in the
abstract. Few want to admit to the parenthood of a child with an emotional
disorder, or to the death of a spouse by suicide. The great sense of shame that
surrounds a family with a member afflicted by mental illness is perpetuated
constantly by newspaper stories of those who have been found innocent of a
violent crime by reason of insanity. Mental illness has thereby often been
associated with violence, sin, guilt and shame.
In the light of this social attitude it is not surprising that the nature,
prevalence, and underlying causes of mental illness are not widely-known or
understood. These are the facts.
In Canada:
1. 5% of school children have an emotional or learning disorder that
should receive professional care.
2. In 1970, general hospitals provided 2,200,000 days of hospital care for
neuroses and psychoses.
3. In 1970 psychiatric institutions provided 21,200,000 more days of
institutional care.
4. On December 31, 1969, there were 66,500 patients registered in
Canadian psychiatric institutions. Of these, 33,200 were psychotic, 24,100
mentally retarded, 4,800 alcoholic, 2,300 neurotic and 2,100 with non-
specified disorders.
In addition to the foregoing it is estimated that mental disorders, such as
anxiety, are a factor in 50% of the patients seen in general medical practice.10
At any moment 3 out of 1,000 Canadians are hospitalized in psychiatric
facilities. Using a city of 400,000 as an example, there are some 1,200 residents
hospitalized for mental illness at any given time, plus those being treated on
an out-patient basis.
61
As a point of fact, statistics on mental illness are grossly inadequate because
of the shame and fear attached to these disorders, which prevent people from
seeking treatment and because of the legal, social and religious blame from
which professionals try to protect their patients.
The shame may be explained in terms of the historical belief in demoniac
possession and banishment of the insane by society, the belief still prevalent
in many circles that mental illness is hereditary and a consequence of such
vicious behaviours as alcoholism and promiscuity, or the belief of other groups
that it is a direct outcome of parental inadequacy in child-rearing.
The legal, social and religious implications of mental illness are exemplified
in the rules of many schools and employers (including hospitals) that prevent
admission or hiring of candidates with a history of mental illness, and in the
criminal charges sometimes made against people who attempt suicide.
Moreover, the severity of mental illness as described in the statistics is
biased by the frequent psychiatric practice of minimizing the diagnosis in the
case of young people, because carrying a label of “psychosis� through one’s
whole life is a heavy burden indeed which in itself is a handicap to adequate
rehabilitation.
Consequently, much needs to be done in terms of revising obsolete laws
and practices strongly tinted by the historical myth of evil attached to mental
illness. Much needs to be done in providing the mentally ill with adequate
protection, care and readaptation opportunities and in informing the public
and modifying attitudes towards mental illness. Much needs to be done also
in preventing mental illness, identifying positive health factors and promoting
them.
The pathological processes at work in our families, our school systems and
in our society’s value system indicate that programs of prevention directed at
large population groups are desperately needed. These programs of
preven-tion would have the advantage of reducing the risks of mental illness
while permitting a sharing of responsibility which would abate some of the guilt
which individuals find so intolerable.
Mental health problems lend themselves to analysis through the Health
Field Concept. The impact of Human Biology, of the Environment, of Lifestyle
and of the Health Care Organization, respectively, can be identified and
estimated so that programs of prevention and therapy can be launched that
will attack principal underlying causes. These programs, however, will not be
given the priority they deserve until the element of shame is dispelled. Measures
to lift the cloud that obscures the subject of mental illness are an urgent
prerequisite to action.
62
Chapter 12. The Health Field Concept
and Strategies for the
Future
The ideas proposed in this paper provide a universal framework for
examining health problems and for suggesting courses of action needed for
their solution. Because they are comprehensive, they have a unifying effect
on all the participants in decisions which affect health, bringing together into
one common front:
1. the health professions,
2. the health institutions,
3. the scientific community,
4. the educational system,
5. municipal governments,
6. provincial governments,
7. the federal government,
8. the business sector and trade unions,
9. the voluntary associations, and
10. the Canadian people as individuals.
The Health Field Concept disregards questions of jurisdiction which may
be important to governments but are not of primary concern to the people of
Canada when their health is at stake. It identifies requirements for health
without regard to the niceties of professional or sectoral boundaries, and it
focuses attention on the broad and important factors underlying the health of
the population.
In putting the Health Field Concept to work, that is, in using it for analysing
federal health policy, it was found that HUMAN BIOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT
and LIFESTYLE were national in character and that problems in these areas
63
tended to pervade Canada’s population with little regard for provincial
boundaries, always excepting purely local environmental matters. Protecting
the food supply from contamination and drugs from being abused, as well as
recognizing alcohol abuse, smoking, obesity, lack of physical fitness, chronic
illness, mental illness, venereal disease and traffic deaths as national health
problems, opens up corridors in which federal leadership can function with
considerable jurisdictional freedom as long as it leads, reinforces and
supplements, without duplication or conflict, the goals and services of the
provinces, and respects the provincial ascendancy in health care services. In
short, the first three elements of the Health Field Concept are open to federal
initiatives in addition to those which are already under way. (see Chapter 7)
Turning to the expressed and latent needs and wants of the Canadian
people, this paper responds strongly to the recent trends and attitudes of
Canadian society. The preservation and enhancement of the environment are
the goals of a very strongly felt need and constitute a powerful current of
popular opinion. In the lifestyle area, nutrition and weight control, as well as
mass physical recreation, are subjects of growing interest, indicating an
increased desire by many Canadians to break out of an unhealthy pattern of
living. These and similar national lifestyle concerns can be eased by measures
growing out of the Health Field Concept, assuming such measures are wisely
chosen and respond to Canadian needs.
For a more particular community, that of the research scientists, this paper
not only gives due recognition to the need for research in basic human biology,
but also points out the necessity of linking up the purposes and uses of health
research to problems in the environment, in lifestyle and in the delivery of care.
For the health professions, who often despair of getting patients to act on
their advice to reduce self-imposed risks, and of governments to attack the
underlying causes of sickness and death, this paper offers them the opportunity
to recruit powerful forces to their cause.
Voluntary associations, dedicated to increasing the awareness of
Canadians of the factors influencing health and to the gravity of specific
diseases, will more easily be able to identify and marshal the assistance of those
who share their goals.
Neglected segments of the Canadian population, in terms of health, can
look forward to getting more of the attention they deserve. The chronically ill,
the aged, the mentally ill, the economically-deprived, the troubled parents, and
others who either are at high risk or are receiving insufficient health care, can
expect that programs for populations will increasingly recognize and respond
to their needs.
64
The federal role suggested by this paper constitutes a promising new
departure. In the past the Federal Government has limited its activities in the
health field to its traditional responsibilities such as quarantine medicine and
the protection of the food supply, to product safety, to ensuring accessibility
to personal health care through substantial financial assistance to provincial
health insurance plans, and to financing research. The basis for concentrating
its interests in these areas has been the belief that the improvement of personal
health care was the principal means of raising the level of health of the
Canadians. In 1973, for example, the federal contribution to provincial health
insurance plans was 2,300 millions of dollars, and financial barriers to medical
and hospital care have largely been eliminated.
The evidence uncovered by the analysis of underlying causes of sickness
and death now indicates that improvement in the environment and an
abatement in the level of risks imposed upon themselves by individuals, taken
together, constitute the most promising ways by which further advances can
be made.
Accordingly, it is the intention of the Government of Canada, first, to
maintain at a high level the services and support provided through its present
activities in health protection, research and the financing of personal health
care. To these will be added measures directed at specific national health
problems, chosen in consultation with provinces, consumers, professions and
associations according to their gravity and incidence, and aimed at removing
or reducing the factors underlying sickness and death.
Some of these measures in time will no doubt be directed at environmental
factors, others will be directed at lifestyle risks, still others will expand the hori-
zons of health research, and yet others will encourage more personal care ser-
vices to neglected parts of the Canadian population. In every case the measures
will be based upon the expressed interest and concern of all those who contrib-
ute to the health of Canadians, including in particular the people themselves.
Since direct health care is already consuming some 7% of the wealth that
Canadians produce annually, it is evident that the rate at which the
Government of Canada can expand its activities in the field of health is severely
limited by financial considerations. It is also true that measures directed at the
prevention of illness will take some time before they are translated into savings
in the costs of providing curative health services.
These two factors make it imperative that the measures developed in
consultation with provinces, professions and associations be chosen with great
care, and with due regard for the costs and benefits that can be anticipated.
In choosing the measures, consideration will be given to a number of factors,
among which will be:
65
1. the gravity of the health problem,
2. the priorities of those who share in decision-making,
3. the availability of effective solutions, results of which are measurable,
4. the costs involved, and
5. the multiplier effect of federal initiatives in marshalling and accelerating
support from all those who make vital contributions to raising the level of
health or who have a key role in controlling the cost of health services.
With the foregoing considerations in mind, and with the recognition that
the good health of Canadians is an objective that shines brightly above the
thicket of jurisdictions and special interest groups, the Government of Canada
proposes to take steps that will start the nation on the road to levels of health
even higher than those that Canada now enjoys.
In taking these steps, the Government of Canada, in cooperation with
others, will pursue two broad objectives:
1. To reduce mental and physical health hazards for those parts of the
Canadian population whose risks are high, and
2. To improve the accessibility of good mental and physical health care
for those whose present access is unsatisfactory.
In pursuit of these two objectives, five strategies are proposed:
1. A Health Promotion Strategy aimed at informing, influencing and
assisting both individuals and organizations so that they will accept more
responsibility and be more active in matters affecting mental and physical
health.
2. A Regulatory Strategy aimed at using federal regulatory powers to
reduce hazards to mental and physical health, and at encouraging and
assisting provinces to use their regulatory powers to the same end.
3. A Research Strategy designed to help discover and apply knowledge
needed to solve mental and physical health problems.
4. A Health Care Efficiency Strategy the objective of which shall be to help
the provinces reorganize the system for delivering mental and physical
health care so that the three elements of cost, accessibility and effectiveness
are balanced in the interests of Canadians.
5. A Goal-Setting Strategy the purpose of which will be to set, in coopera-
tion with others, goals for raising the level of the mental and physical health
of Canadians and improving the efficiency of the health care system.
66
In implementing these strategies much analysis and consultation within
the framework of this paper is still needed. This will be undertaken in respect
of the following possible courses of action.
For the Health Promotion Strategy some possible courses of action among
others could be:
1. The development for the general public of educational programs on
nutrition.
2. The enlistment of the help of the food and restaurant industries in
making known the caloric value and nutritional content of the food they
sell.
3. Educational campaigns to increase awareness of the gravity and
underlying causes of traffic accidents, deaths and injuries.
4. Activities to promote a more widespread understanding of the gravity
and underlying causes of coronary-artery disease.
5. Measures to lift the veil from mental illness, and to create a more realistic
sense of urgency in respect of the gravity of this problem.
6. Information to increase awareness of the hazards of self-medication.
7. Further information campaigns to increase public awareness of health
problems due to the abuse of alcohol, drugs, tobacco and to venereal
disease.
8. Encouragement among employers of programs designed to ease the
transition from employment to retirement.
9. Reinforcement of successful programs for making life more interesting
for the aged.
10. Promotion and coordination of school and adult health education
programs, particularly by health professionals and school teachers.
11. Direct awareness activities tailored to the responsibilities of specific
sectors for the reduction of self-imposed and environmental health risks
including business, trade unions, governments, voluntary associations and
action groups, communities, professions, parents and teachers.
12. Continued and expanded marketing programs for promoting
increased physical activity by Canadians.
13. Enlistment of the support of the educational system in increasing
opportunities for mass physical recreation in primary and secondary
schools, in community colleges and in universities.
67
14. Promotion of the development of simple intensive-use facilities for
more physical recreation including fitness trails, nature trails, ski trails,
facilities for court games, playing fields, bicycle paths and skating rinks.
15. Continued pressing for full community use of present outdoor and
indoor recreation facilities, including gymnasia, pools, playing fields and
arenas.
16. Continued and reinforced support for sports programs involving large
numbers of Canadians.
17. Encouragement of private sports clubs to accept more social
responsibility for extending the use of their facilities to less-privileged
segments of the Canadian population.
18. Extension of present support for special programs of physical activity
for native peoples, the handicapped, the aged and the economically-
deprived.
19. Enlistment of the support of women’s movements in getting more mass
physical recreation programs for females, including school children, young
adults, housewives and employees.
20. Enlistment of the support of employers of sedentary workers in the
establishment of employee exercise programs.
21. Enlistment of the support of trade unions representing sedentary
workers in obtaining employee exercise programs.
22. Increase in the awareness of health professionals of factors affecting
physical fitness.
23. Completion of the development of a home fitness test to enable
Canadians to evaluate their fitness level.
For the Regulatory Strategy some possible courses of action among others
could be:
24. Regulations for improving the nutritional content of food.
25. Consultation with the Department of Justice in respect of the laws
against driving while impaired by alcohol.
26. Increased control of advertising for products which are so frequently
or deeply abused as to constitute serious hazards to health.
27. Increased control of health hazards due to air, water, food, noise and
soil pollution to the extent that the power to legislate with regard to these
may fall into federal jurisdiction.
68
28. Increased control of death hazards from communicable diseases,
radiation, medical devices and cosmetics.
29. Increased control under the Hazardous Products Act over the
advertisement, importation and sale of household products the possession
or use of which is accompanied by some significant accident hazard or
danger to health.
30. Assistance to the Provinces in promoting the acceptance by the public
of regulations passed pursuant to provincial legislation making compulsory
the wearing of seat-belts in motor vehicles.
31. Regulations governing child-resistant closures on drug products.
For the Research Strategy some courses of action among others to be explored
include:
32. An ongoing dialogue between health planners and the research
community on the priorities for mission-oriented health research while
preserving for the research community the setting of priorities in basic
research.
33. The implementation of a regular National Health Survey to determine
the prevalence and nature of acute and chronic mental and physical illness,
to permit an assessment of the health status and needs of Canadians and
to measure changes in status and needs.
34. The institution of a special program for identifying health status
indicators and high-risk segments of the Canadian population, for the
evaluation of the nature and gravity of mental and physical health risks,
and for the proposal of measures to abate the level of risk.
35. Measures to help integrate, improve and use, on a national basis, the
data and statistics being recorded at various governmental and institutional
levels.
36. The establishment of a well-designed comprehensive system for the
reporting of accident statistics which would, among other things, identify
accident-associated products.
37. The promotion of increased support for research on underlying causes
of coronary-artery disease.
38. Support for more research on the causes and treatment of mental
illness.
39. The support of projects designed to evaluate the results of present
mass-screening programs and to test the effectiveness of future ones.
69
40. The establishment of a National Drug Abuse Institute covering all
abusive drugs including psychotropic drugs, both licit and illicit, alcohol
and cigarettes, and responsible for gathering statistics, supporting research,
evaluating preventive and treatment measures and recommending policy.
41. The undertaking of a broad continuing study into the ways and means
of effectively informing the Canadian people on changes in behaviour
which will significantly reduce self-imposed risks.
42. The continuation and strengthening of present research into the effect
of the physical environment on health.
43. The establishment of a program for assessing the effect of social and
environmental change on health including the calculation of risk factors
due to lifestyle.
44. The continuation of support for research on physical and mental fitness
and for fitness testing.
45. Continued and increased support for research into better ways of
providing health care.
46. Continued support for research consistent with the scale of the health
care industry.
For the Health Care Efficiency Strategy it is important to note that the word
“efficiency� in this context is not limited to the narrow economic meaning of
low cost per unit of production, but includes, as well as cost, the other two
important elements of accessibility of service and the effectiveness of results.
For this strategy, some measures that could be considered among others are:
47. Pursuing a method of financing health care that will provide incentives
for providing satisfactory care at the lowest cost, and will permit the
extension of pre-paid care to additional essential services.
48. Strengthening industrial and emergency health services, including the
training of personnel.
49. The identification, treatment and follow-up of Canadians with high
blood pressure.
50. The support of programs aimed at reducing the risk of premature
coronary-artery disease, including weight-control, exercise, stress-
reduction and anti-smoking.
51. The identification, treatment and follow-up of Canadians suffering
from a high serum cholesterol level (hypercholesterolemia).
70
52. Support for programs for increasing the number and skills of
professions dealing with mental health and mental illness including
particularly nurses, social workers, health educators and teachers.
53. The subsidy of programs for training counsellors on alcoholic problems
and their treatment.
54. The promotion of employer programs for employees with alcohol
problems.
55. The support of home visit and other programs for helping chronically
ill and aged people to stay in their communities.
56. The development and support of programs of professional training in
gerontology and geriatrics, including physicians, nurses and health support
personnel.
57. A continued adherence to the principle that accessibility to ambulatory,
institutional and home care must be based upon the perceived needs of
the public.
58. Making continued federal support for the training of health profes-
sionals conditional upon effective measures to ensure that health
manpower is better distributed geographically, among specialties and
according to economic levels served.
59. The continued extension of the role of nurses and nurse practitioners
in the care of the mentally ill, in the care of the chronically ill, in the provision
of home care, in family counselling on preventive health measures, both
mental and physical, and in the abatement of environmental hazards and
self-imposed risks.
60. The organization and administration of an improved drug information
system to physicians so that they will make a more effective and objective
use of drugs.
61. The continued promotion of the establishment of community health
facilities that are physically and professionally integrated.
62. The introduction of practical measures, including the use of expert
committees, to diminish the time between the latest medical knowledge
and the application of that knowledge in the practice of medicine.
63. The encouragement of the development of regional bodies with
comprehensive authority over the delivery of health care in their respective
regions.
71
64. The enlistment of the support of pharmacists in establishing, under
physician direction, a follow-up system on the compliance of patients with
drug therapy.
65. Work with genetics counsellors in improving the use and availability
of genetic services to Canadians.
66. The continuation and extension of assistance to Provinces in their
campaign against venereal disease.
67. The examination of the possibility of integrating authority over federal
treatment services, including those for veterans, Indians, Eskimos,
Northern Territories, and penitentiary inmates.
For the Goal-Setting Strategy, which applies to the four foregoing
strategies, consultation will be intensified so that a rational array of specific
goals can be established, providing a united and reinforced sense of direction
for those who work in the health field. A goal has a time limit and is stated in
quantitative terms. Possible courses of action include among others:
68. The development of specific reductions in the incidence of major
mortality and morbidity.
69. The establishment of specific dates by which reductions in mortality
and morbidity are to be achieved.
70. The development of specific improvements in the efficiency of the
health care delivery system, including improvements in cost performance,
accessibility of care, and the effectiveness of results.
71. The establishment of specific dates by which improvements are to be
achieved.
72. The setting of standards of care in both mental and physical health
care systems.
73. The extension of national standards of nutrition to include definite
recommendations on safe levels of intake for hazardous substances
occurring naturally in food.
74. A renewed commitment toward the health goals of the World Health
Organization and the Pan American Health Organization.
72
Conclusion
The foregoing formulation of two broad objectives, five main strategies
and seventy-four proposals constitutes a conceptual framework within which
health issues can be analysed in their full perspective and health policy can be
developed over the coming years. Since all of the propositions do not have
equal weight, and since authority for their pursuit is widely dispersed among
governments, professions and organizations, the Working Paper does not
attempt to pre-judge jurisdictional and financial issues nor to set priorities for
other levels of government. Limitations on the availability of funds will require
that expanded initiatives be carefully paced in relation to the ability of the
economy to absorb them without adding to existing levels of taxation. With
the Health Field Concept and this Working Paper, however, there will be a
much clearer picture of the options available. In the end � by individuals, by
society and by governments � choices must be made.
73
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8. Glazier, William H., The Task of Medicine, Scientific American, Vol. 228, No. 4, April
1973.
9. Main Estimates, Government of Canada, 1973-74.
10. Report of the Committee on the Healing Arts, Ontario, Vol. 3, 1970, p. 148.
74
Annex A. Panorama
of Mortality in Canada
The enclosed chart gives a broad overview of the prevailing causes of death*
for each sex and age group in Canada (1971). It demonstrates the importance
of the contribution of our lifestyle to mortality up to middle age, for example
motor vehicle accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, heart disease, etc. It also
emphasizes the different mortality patterns and rates for males and females.
The causes included are responsible for at least 5%** of the deaths within each
sex and age group, thus one cause may be important only relative to certain age
and sex groups, such as leukemia among young children. The 13 first cause-
groups used in this chart represent two thirds of the total deaths after the age of 5.
PITFALLS TO AVOID
As indicated in note 2 on the chart, the areas of the circles are proportionate
only to the absolute number of deaths, therefore one is unable to determine
if the mortality rate of one group is greater than another by simple comparison
between two circles. The mortality rate, expressed in “per thousand�, for each
age and sex group is obtained by dividing the number of deaths (d) by the
corresponding population (p).
Shown hereunder are 3 examples of pitfalls resulting from ignorance of this fact:
a) The number of deaths among males aged 30 to 34 (1,090) is less than
that of the preceding age group, 25-29 (1,176) although the mortality rate
among males aged from 30 to 34 ( 1, 090 = 1.65 per thousand) exceed
660 . 9
1,176
that of the 25-29 group ( 800. 7 = 1.47 per thousand)
* Taken from “Vital statistics, 84-201, 1971� published by Statistics Canada, using the
International Intermediate “A� List of 150 cause-groups.
** The arbitrary criterion of 5% has been selected so as to limit the causes to a manageable
number. It must be noted that some causes of death listed are identical to those of the
classification used (motor vehicle accidents: AE 138, Breast Cancer: A 54...) whereas others
correspond to groupings representing a more comprehensive entity (other accidents: AE
139-146, respiratory diseases: A 89-96, gastro-intestinal cancer: A 46-49, and cancer of
the uterus and ovary: A 55, 56, 58D).
75
b) In the same way, deaths among women over 80 are more numerous
than those among men of the same age group (23,285 and 21,016),
nevertheless the mortality rate in women is less than that of the men from
the same age group ( 23,285 = 116 per thousand, 21, 016 = 150 per thousand)
201.3 140 .3
c) The fact that suicide disappears from the chart after age 45 for females
and age 50 for males is not due to a decrease in incidence but merely to
a decrease in importance compared to other causes.
76
CANADA 1971 Major causes of death Causes principales de décès
for each sex and age group pour chaque tranche d'âge et de sexe
d = 21,717
d = 21,016
p= 345.6
p= 140.3
d = 10,277
p= 296.1
d = 8,753
p = 381.7
d = 6,886
p = 472.4
d = 4,838
p = 518.9
d = 4,391
Male Hommes d = 3,523
p = 929.6
p = 613.4
d = 2,310
d = 1,697 p = 640.8
d = 1,416
d = 1,489 p = 941.8 d = 1,090
d = 1,176 p = 645.0
p = 1,074.4
p = 660.9
p = 800.7
d = 641 d = 589
causes not indicated
p = 1,152.4
here, p = 1,181.5
as most are specific to
infant mortality
0-4 5-9 20-24 30-34 40-44 55-59 60-64
10-14 15-19 25-29 70-79
35-39 45-49 50-54 65-69 80+
causes non indiquées
ici,
la plupart d = 424 d = 485
d = 365 d = 559 d = 565
étant spécifiques de d = 579
p = 1,101.6 d = 815
p = 783.4
p = 1,129.3
la mortalité infantile
p = 947.6 p = 644.6
p = 1,039.9
p = 618.8 d = 1,290
p = 621.8 d = 1,901
d = 2,480
p = 625.6
Female Femmes
d = 3,195
p = 533.6 d = 3,477
p = 886.6
p = 482.3 d = 4,345
p = 395.3 d = 5,614
p = 323.9
d = 16,068
p= 437.3
d = 23,285
p= 201.3
Scale Échelle
Legend LĂ©gende Notes
(number of deaths) (nombre de décès)
Motor vehicle accidents Lung cancer Coronary heart disease A 83 1) � In each circle major causes of death are arranged in
AE 138 A 51 decreasing order of magnitude.
Accidents de véhicule à moteur Cancer du poumon Maladies coronariennes 4,000 � Dans chaque cercle les causes principales de décès
All other accidents Breast cancer A 54 Cerebrovascular accident (stroke) sont indiquées par ordre décroissant.
Autres accidents AE 139-146 A 85
Cancer du sein Maladies cérébrovasculaires (congestion cérébrale) 2) � The area of each circle is proportional to the number
Gastro-intestinal cancer A 46-49 Other arteriosclerotic diseases A 86 1,000 of deaths in each sex and age group. (The death rate
Suicide AE 147 can be calculated using the two figures under each
Cancer gastro-intestinal Autres formes d'artériosclérose circle.)
All other causes
Respiratory diseases Cancer of the uterus and ovary � Les surfaces de chaque cercle sont proportionnelles
A 55,
A 89-96 (each causing less than 5% of deaths within each
Maladies respiratoires Cancer de l'utérus et de l'ovaire 56, 58D aux nombre de décès de chaque tranche d'âge et
d: number of deaths by sex and age
Based on: Basé sur :
sex and age group) nombre de décès suivant l'âge et le sexe de sexe. (Les taux de décès peuvent être calculés en
Toutes les autres causes Vital Statistics, La Statistique de l'Ă©tat civil,
Leukemia A 59
Cirrhosis of liver utilisant les deux nombres figurant sous chaque 1971, Catalogue 84-201, 1971, Catalogue 84-201,
p: population by sex and age (000's)
(responsables individuellement de moins de 5 % des décès
Cirrhose du foie A 102 Leucémie cercle.) Statistics Canada Statistique Canada
population suivant l'âge et le sexe (en milliers)
dans chaque tranche d'âge et de sexe)
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