A Report on Health and Aging in Canada 1

There is a very large study of 50,000 Canadians aged 45 to 85 taking place now. The study is on Aging and is one of the biggest and most thorough studies on the health and well-being of the country’s aging population. Today and tomorrow, I will highlight a number of the key findings of this report.

The researchers out of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and the Research Centre on Aging of the Université de Sherbrooke published a report called ‘The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging Report on Health and Aging in Canada: Findings from Baseline Data Collection 2010-2015 (pdf file)’. The report examines physical, mental, and social aspects of aging based on data from participants, who are followed every three years.

Findings from Baseline Data Collection 2010-2015

 As a country, where the average life expectancy is 80 for men and 84 for women, people are living longer. The addition of these extra years of life is a good sign in itself. They demonstrate Canada’s high standard of living, innovative public health, and high-quality health care. But we have to make sure that these extra years are worth living: More time to work and contribute wealth and wisdom to society, as well as more time to enjoy with family and friends.

Around the world, the population is aging. In 2017 for the first time, the population of Canadians 65 and older was larger than the number of children under 15. It is easy to look at aging as a challenge for the individual and for society and indeed there has been a tendency to look at aging as a set of physical symptoms, organ by organ, illness by illness, and tallying the personal, social and financial burdens imposed on families and societies.

Aging has been presented as simply an issue of decline and loss. The perception of what it means to be in one’s 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s has not kept pace with modern medicine, and neither have our ways of optimizing the extra years that modern public health and medicine have given us. If we end seeing aging only in cycles of deterioration and dependence, we can capitalize on the concrete features of aging and fund policies and plans that support not only existing longer but also living well. The likely continuing participation of older adults in society will be wasted if a change in the understanding of a certain negativity of aging does not take place.

One of the many pressing policy implications of an increasingly aging population in Canada is on health and social care affordability. Conservative forecasts suggest that the proportion of the Canadian population aged 65 years or more will increase over the next 20 years to approximately 23% to 25% of the Canadian population, or almost 10 million Canadians, by 2036.

 This increase is unprecedented. Total health and social care expenditures in Canada now exceeds $300 billion with health care alone at approximately $211 billion, the largest expenditure item in provincial budgets. As the baby boom generation moves toward retirement or enters second careers (an emerging phenomenon), the challenges, and opportunities that Canada faces in supporting a diverse and multi-ethnic aging population will intensify. The baby boomers’ shifting lifestyle choices make them one of the most compelling demographics to study. A challenge for health and social policymakers is the lack of strong evidence to inform public health and social policy decision making that is directed toward preventing morbidity and improving the health of Canada’s aging population.

The target sample size of the CLSA was 50,000 participants; in 20 5, the CLSA completed recruitment and baseline data collection from  5,338 community-living women and men aged 45 to 85 years from across Canada. Participants were asked to provide a core set of information on demographic and lifestyle/ behavior measures, social measures, physical measures, psychological measures, economic measures, health status measures, and health services use. CLSA participants undergo repeated waves of data collection every three years and will be followed for at least 20 years, or until death (or other reasons for termination of participation)