Obesity may be most risky factor for heart disease in Canada

Obesity may surpass smoking to become the most risky factor for heart disease for Canadians in the coming years, a newly released study found out Tuesday.

The report, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, was published Tuesday by an online open-access journal CMAJ Open.

Researches used a new model that simulated the future lives of 22.5 million Canadians aged 20 years and above to estimate their cardiovascular risk.

The risk of obesity looks like continuing to increase, and smoking continuing to decrease, which is going to play out in heart disease, said the report's leading author Doug Manuel in an interview with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, who is also a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

Obesity affects nearly one in five adults in Canada, Manuel added.

He suggested policymakers could use the model as a baseline to estimate how changes, such as improving food affordability, could affect health behaviors.

Heart disease is a leading cause of death in Canada, killing more than 70,000 people each year.