Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
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<strong>Health</strong> systems in transition <strong>Canada</strong> 13<br />
Relative to the OECD comparators, <strong>Canada</strong>’s life expectancy is at the higher<br />
end of the scale even though infant mortality and maternal mortality rates tend<br />
to be worse than those in Australia, France and (especially) Sweden. When<br />
comparing on the basis of health-adjusted life expectancy, <strong>Canada</strong>’s rate is in<br />
the mid-range of the OECD comparator countries (Table 1.9).<br />
Table 1.9<br />
<strong>Health</strong> status, <strong>Canada</strong> and selected countries, latest available year<br />
<strong>Canada</strong> Australia France Sweden<br />
United<br />
Kingdom<br />
United<br />
States<br />
Life expectancy at birth, 2009 (years) 81 82 81 81 80 79<br />
Infant mortality rate per 100 births, 2010 5 4 3 2 5 7<br />
Perinatal mortality rate per 1 000 births, 2004 a 6 5 7 5 8 7<br />
Maternal mortality rate per 100 000 live births,<br />
2008<br />
HALE (health-adjusted life expectancy) at birth,<br />
2007<br />
Sources: a WHO (2011a); WHO (2007); WHO (2010) <strong>for</strong> HALE.<br />
12 8 8 5 12 24<br />
73 74 73 74 72 70<br />
As can be seen in Table 1.10, heart disease and cancer (malignant neoplasms)<br />
have alternated as the main cause of death. Among the cancers, lung cancer<br />
is the largest killer in <strong>Canada</strong>. Ischaemic heart disease (IHD) remains the<br />
most important contributor to death among the cardiovascular diseases, which<br />
includes cerebrovascular stroke, the other major killer in this category (Hu<br />
et al., 2006).