Waterloo region okay, but not great for heart health

When it comes to cardiovascular health, new Canadian research suggests it's better to live in Waterloo region than in northern Ontario, but even better to live in the Greater Toronto Area.

The massive study which tracked 5.5 million middle-aged adults from 2008 to 2012, looking for heart attacks, strokes and deaths from cardiovascular issues was published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

• Where you live in Ontario could impact your risk of heart attack or stroke, study indicates

The information is broken down by Local Health Integration Networks and shows that the Waterloo-Wellington LHIN performed in the middle of the pack, with 3.9 to 4.7 events occurring out of every 1,000 person-years a statistical measurement used to express incidence rates.

Three LHINs in the Greater Toronto Area performed better, with 3.2 to 3.5 events occurring, and four LHINs did worse, with 4.8 to 5.7 events occurring.

Lead author Dr. Jack Tu, who is a senior scientist at Toronto-based Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, said access to frequent preventative services are key to cardiovascular health.

"Those living in the areas with the lowest burden of disease were the most likely to have received cardiovascular preventative services, such as having an annual physical, seeing their doctor to have their cholesterol and diabetes checked, and having their blood pressure controlled," he said.