Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and members of the committee.
We're very pleased to be here from the Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada.
I'm Mary Collins. I'm the chair of the alliance, and Craig Larsen is the executive director. We're going to give a general view around technology and innovation for the prevention of chronic disease. I know that we're going to be hearing some really interesting, very specific ideas and applications, which we're looking forward to hearing as well.
Just to give you a little background, CDPAC is an alliance of nine national NGOs. We share a vision of an integrated and collaborative approach to promoting health and preventing chronic disease in Canada. Our key activities include knowledge mobilization and advocacy for evidence-informed policy. We work primarily at the federal level, although we also communicate with the Council of the Federation to help inform provincial and territorial action.
I know you've been working on this for quite a while and have had a lot of input from a whole variety of folks. I know that you are aware of the impacts of chronic disease, but given your studies, we want to reiterate a couple of facts to keep in mind.
As you know, three in five Canadians above the age of 20 are living with a chronic disease, and four in five have at least one risk factor. The costs of managing chronic disease in Canada currently account for 58% of all health care spending and are estimated at $68 billion annually. Indirect costs associated with the loss of income and productivity are estimated to be about double that, about $122 billion.
In Canada, 67% of deaths are caused by the four major chronic diseases—cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases. Of course we know that diabetes is one of the fastest growing diseases, particularly among aboriginal populations, and that the current generation of Canadians are likely to live shorter lives than their parents, given the trajectory we're on.
The good news is that the four major risk factors for chronic disease—unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, tobacco use, and inappropriate alcohol use—are in fact modifiable and much of chronic disease is thus preventable. We just have to get there.
How can technological innovations help us bend the curve of chronic diseases, which have grown so extensively over the last decade not only in Canada but in almost every developing and developed country in the world? This is a field that's just beginning to open up, and the opportunities are virtually endless. We've already witnessed the tremendous benefits of technology assisting those with chronic diseases to manage their diseases. Whether it's the modern monitoring devices for heart disease or those for tracking their conditions, some of these technologies are well down the road and are being used effectively, and there are certainly many other examples of success stories. But not as much work has been done around technological intervention for the prevention of chronic disease.
So how do we target the greatest areas of need while at the same time taking advantage of some easy wins to help advance technology for healthy living? With the plethora of information available through web sites, applications, or apps, as we all have come to know them, and social media, consumers are becoming much more health savvy than ever before and increasingly amenable to using technologies to support their healthy living. Electronic tools are critical.
We know that the provision of data and information alone will not necessarily mitigate the preventable risk factors of chronic disease. Often they need to be partnered with the mentorship and buddy system, but they play an important role in making it easier for people to access, interpret, and apply the confusing masses of information they may have at their fingertips.
I guess you already know that 48% of Canadians are using mobile smart phones, that 70% have downloaded applications, and that 34% of those relate to health, fitness, and wellness. So Canadians are already getting there.
Clinicians, of course, are certainly looking at technologies to provide them with quick, accurate, and efficient assessment tools. They don't always have the specialized time or the ability to make dietary assessments or offer practical strategies to support patient behaviour changes and thus are increasingly avid users of apps. Technology accelerates such clinical processes for practitioners and patients alike, and helps improve the accuracy and completeness of measurements.
There's been particular development around smoking cessation apps, and a lot of good practice and some good results. Usually they have to be associated with a physician or another health practitioner helping you, but at least you have the app that tracks what's happening with your smoking behaviour and that can help you avoid it. It's the same thing with alcohol use.
Nutrition apps, we think, hold a huge amount of potential. I mean, this is the thing that's really tough. I keep thinking that I'd like to be able to go into Second Cup and hold my BlackBerry up against the food choices, and it would tell me, “Mary, uh-uh, not that blueberry muffin; that's 350 calories and 16 grams of sodium. How about that nice salad over there?”