Burnaby has lower levels of obesity, smoking and binge drinking when compared to the Fraser Health Authority average, according to new research.
A survey, titled “My Health My Community,” asked 33,000 respondents from across Metro Vancouver questions about their healthy behaviours – everything from how much time is spent on electronic devices to whether errands are run by foot or car.
“It’ a snapshot,” said Dr. Lisa Mu, medical health officer with Fraser Health. “The important thing is to recognize that this is where we are now, and this provides us with some numbers. So if we were to look at this again, we could say how we improved in this area.”
Among Burnaby participants, 19 per cent reported to be obese, eight per cent lower than the Fraser Health average. Nine per cent of those who answered the questionnaire, meanwhile, said they smoke on a daily or occasional basis, while 15 per cent reported binge drinking (five or more drinks on one occasion for men, and four or more drinks on one occasion for women) at least once a month.
There’s always room for improvement, Mu told the NOW, including managing a healthy diet. Fewer than one in four respondents reported eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day, while fewer than half met the exercise recommendations (about 150 minutes of weekly physical activity), and around half reported being in front of a screen (cell phone, TV, etc.) for two hours or more every day.
One of the questions Mu said she’d like to explore further and pick apart relates to having a strong sense of community belonging. Results show only 49 per cent of Burnaby participants felt they had a solid connection to where they live.
“There’s so many factors that feed into that. It’s one that I’d be interested in looking at with the municipality, with the community, to address,” she added. “There’s a very high immigrant population, and that probably influences some of the numbers we see.”
This “granular data” collected at the municipal level, Mu said, will help with city planning.
“This is a much more representative sample than a lot of the other data that is available.”
To view the complete report – the largest regional health survey ever conducted in B.C. – visit www.myhealthmycommunity.org.
