SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
As temperatures drop, the temptation to hibernate can rise.

A recent study by the Conference Board of Canada warns that Canadians' increasingly sedentary lifestyles are putting them at risk for chronic conditions.

Counsins Gavin Broadhead, left, Jill Belanger and Taltson Olexin work outside, demonstrate a point that is often brought up by elders – that physical activity used to be a regular part of daily life, says Sabrina Broadhead, director of Aboriginal health and community wellness with the GNWT. - photo courtesy of Sabrina Broadhead

"An alarming number of Canadians are moving very little, sitting too long, eating poorly, not getting enough sleep, drinking too much, and continuing to smoke," said Thy Dinh, senior research associate on the study, called the Economic Impact of Reducing Physical Inactivity and Sedentary Behaviour.

"Even though average life expectancy has increased, the progress made in previous decades - such as lowering smoking rates - appears to have plateaued. There is an urgent need to support Canadians in adopting healthier lifestyles and create a national culture of wellness."

The study showed the diagnosis of chronic conditions has risen as fewer and fewer Canadians live healthy, active lifestyles. Across the country, only 15 per cent of adults meet the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity per week.

Dinh said a major contributor to the rise in sedentary behaviour is office environments that leave little opportunity for movement.

"We have this tendency just to stay inside, regardless of the temperature, because of our work ... not all workplaces have gone that progressive where they're putting in standing desks, for example, or finding ways to reduce the amount of time people are sitting at the office," said Dinh. "That's more and more of the problem we have right now, and it almost sounds like an easy solution."

Reducing the amount of time spent sitting can pay off in the long run, said Dinh, but cold winters do offer an added challenge of finding ways to stay active indoors.

In the NWT, Kami Kandola, deputy chief public health officer, said the picture is similar to the rest of the country, where chronic diseases account for a significant portion of deaths.

"We know over the last 20 years that the middle-aged to older population is increasing, so that has an impact on our chronic disease burden," said Kandola. "What we also know is that for every 10 deaths, seven of those 10 deaths is related to chronic disease. The number one cause of death in the Northwest Territories is cancer, followed by cardiovascular disease."

The Department of Health and Social Services has been working steadily toward increasing health rates in the territory with a number of programs, said Kandola.

The BETTER program is geared towards improving lifestyles and screening methods, to target the rise in chronic conditions. As part of the program, the Department of Health and Social Services posts videos on its website highlighting different healthy habits, geared towards Northerners. Videos on the importance of physical activity and healthy eating have already been released, with tobacco and alcohol cessation and healthy relationships in the pipeline, said Kandola.

Although the BETTER program is aimed at those aged 40 to 65, she said it is easily adaptable to all age groups.

Adaptability and taking specific needs into account is one reason Sabrina Broadhead, director of aboriginal health and community wellness with the GNWT, said her division has been refocusing funding toward allowing community groups to develop their own programming.

"Health promotion is just putting the finishing touches on a funding program communities can access to help build programs that work for them," said Broadhead. "You identify the kinds of things that work for your community ... the idea is healthy choices, whatever that means to you."

According to the NWT Health Status Report from 2010, only 41 per cent of of the population is physically active enough to maintain or improve their health. Across Canada, the average is 53 per cent.

In 2012 and 2013, communities across the territory developed their own Community Health and Wellness Plans, in which Broadhead said there was a common understanding of the factors that contribute to overall health.

In Yellowknife, a plan commissioned by the city's Social Issues Committee, titled Championing Well-Being in Yellowknife, was released in 2009.

"What we found was there was a lot of conversation around eating good food, getting active, preventing disease and injury and those are three pieces," said Broadhead. "In the communities, we want to find ways for our people to have nutritious and traditional food, have recreational activity because we know those prevent diseases and injury."

According to the NWT Health Status Report, 70 per cent of all deaths in the NWT were attributed to chronic conditions and approximately 200 cases of diabetes are diagnosed in the territory each year. The report also showed that 63 per cent of NWT residents are overweight, which is significantly above the national average of 51 per cent.

The conference board's study is the first in a series that will look at the negative effects of certain behaviours - nutrition, lack of sleep, smoking and alcohol consumption will also be looked at - in order to quantify the actual costs of these behaviours.

"There is more than enough evidence out there to show that there is a connection, but we wanted to quantify really what that impact could look

like," said Dinh.

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