June is Stroke Awareness Month. We took a look at data from Peg to explore how income is related to likelihood of stroke in Winnipeg.

Peg tells us…

People living in Point Douglas have the highest rate of stroke of all community areas in Winnipeg at 4.14 per 1000 residents, double the rate compared to people living in Fort Garry.

The facts are:

• Lower-income Winnipeggers are significantly more likely to have a stroke than those in the highest-income quintile. The lowest-income 20 per cent were 64 per cent more likely to have a stroke than the highest-income 20 per cent.
• The rate of hospitalization or death due to a stroke in Winnipeg was 2.6 per thousand residents aged 40 and over in 2007-2011. The rate has decreased slightly since 2002-2006, when it was 2.7 per thousand.

To view the complete map on Peg, visit http://www.mypeg.ca/maps/

Why does this matter?

• Cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attack and stroke, are the leading causes of death globally, and represent a third of all deaths in Winnipeg in any given year. These diseases are also a leading cause of hospitalization and adult disability. Heart attacks and strokes are associated with social and economic disadvantage. Opportunities for employment, income, education, and housing have enormous potential to reduce the unequal burden of heart disease and stroke.

Definitions:

• The stroke indicator measures the number of hospitalizations or deaths due to stroke per 1,000 residents aged 40 and older. Rates are sex- and age-adjusted.
• It should be noted that patients who were attended by nurses, misdiagnosed, or did not seek treatment are not recorded in official statistics in the database.
• More detail and source data for the above facts available at http://www.mypeg.ca/explorer/WellBeing/Health/Stroke/

Source of the data:

• Peg’s data for the Stroke indicator is provided by the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy: http://mchp-appserv.cpe.umanitoba.ca/reference/RHA_2013_web_version.pdf
• For more information, see page 20 of the 2015 Peg Report on Health Equity.

About us:

Peg (mypeg.ca) is a community indicator system that measures the health of our community year over year – in ways that count. Peg is led by two partnering organizations – the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) and United Way of Winnipeg (UW).

Regularly, the team at Peg releases data and facts that help us understand our city better. This is one of those regular reports. Others can be found at http://www.mypeg.ca/blog.

Peg is the starting place for Winnipeg citizens, educators, policy makers, and many others to learn more about our city so we can lead change to create a better city for our children and their children. At Peg we can all learn how our lives, our neighbourhood and our city is changing – for the good and the bad. Learn more at www.mypeg.ca.