Thank you for the invitation to address this committee. I'm pleased to contribute to your study by speaking about the role of the Public Health Agency of Canada in addressing challenges faced by senior women.
Starting with the current public health picture, the fact that more Canadians are living longer is a public health triumph. The aging population also means that the prevalence of chronic diseases is expected to increase. With advances in treatment and management of diseases, persons aged 65 years and older are likely to live longer with one or more chronic conditions. I'm going to go over those now.
In terms of dementia, while dementia is not a normal part of aging, age is the strongest known risk factor for dementia. Dementia disproportionately impacts Canadian women, and the majority of family/friend caregivers of people with dementia are female. Women aged 65 years and older are more likely than men to be diagnosed with dementia. Given Canada's aging population, the number of people diagnosed with dementia is expected to increase. It is projected that by 2031 the total annual health care cost for Canadians with dementia will have doubled.
While many seniors maintain good mental health, mental illnesses later in life often occur within the context of life transitions, losses, chronic illness, disability or social isolation. Senior women are more likely than men to use health services for mood and anxiety disorders. Senior women are also disproportionately affected by musculoskeletal conditions. They are about four times more likely to be diagnosed with osteoporosis than men. Fractures, the primary complication of osteoporosis, are higher among women than men, and women are approximately two times more likely to fracture a hip. In addition, women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and 1.5 times as likely to be diagnosed with osteoarthritis.
Falls have a significant physical and mental health consequence for older adults and families and threaten independent living. Falls are the leading cause of older adult traumatic brain injury; 20% to 30% of seniors experience at least one fall each year. Of those seniors who experience a fall, close to 20% will die within one year of the fall. Older women, particularly those over 75 years of age, experience higher rates of fall-related injuries and hospitalizations than men.
In terms of what the Public Health Agency of Canada is doing with our investments and initiatives, I'll start with surveillance. In collaboration with provinces and territories, the agency conducts national chronic disease surveillance to support the development and evaluation of related policies, programs and services. We're currently developing a report on seniors aged 65 years and older that will provide a snapshot of their health. As much as possible, data will be disaggregated by sex to highlight patterns unique to women and men. The report is expected to be released in 2020.
In 2018, the Government of Canada invested $75 million in the healthy seniors pilot project in New Brunswick to fund a range of applied research initiatives that will provide useful information for governments and stakeholders across the country on how to better support seniors in their homes, communities and care facilities. This will help us to better understand the different challenges that women and men face.
The agency also works closely with provinces and territories, as well as the World Health Organization, on the age-friendly communities initiative. Under the AFC initiative, older adults and community leaders are working together in more than 1,200 communities across Canada to create supportive physical and social environments so that seniors can live safely, enjoy good health and be active. The agency has developed tools to help communities implement and evaluate AFC initiatives.
More recently, in 2019, PHAC announced funding of $250,000 to Parachute Canada for its pan-Canadian seniors' fall prevention network. This is a project in collaboration with other organizations. Parachute Canada will create an online hub for individuals and health professionals, making it easier for them to find tools, resources and information related to fall prevention and recovery.
In terms of the dementia file, starting in 2019, the dementia community investment is a new program that will provide $4 million per year to support community-based projects to improve the well-being of people living with dementia, as well as the family members and/or friends who care for them. The Public Health Agency is also leading the development of a national dementia strategy. The strategy is expected to be released in spring 2019.
The pan-Canadian health inequalities reporting initiative aims to strengthen the measurement, monitoring and reporting of health inequalities in Canada through improved access to data.
As part of this initiative, an interactive, publicly accessible data tool was developed. The tool can be found online, and it includes 70 indicators for health for up to 13 different socio-economic and socio-demographic population groups. The data tool currently provides rates by age group and by sex for indicators meaningful to seniors' health, such as those related to housing, health care, food insecurity and community belonging. Additional data on health inequalities among seniors is expected to be made available in 2020.
PHAC is also systematically applying the Government of Canada's renewed commitment to sex and gender-based analysis, SGBA+, which my colleague Danielle referenced. We're applying this to our science, policies and programs to consider the potential differential impacts on diverse groups of men and women, girls and boys.
In conclusion, we know that the needs of senior women are diverse. Some may need extra support to stay in their homes and to find the appropriate services to enable them to do so. Some need access to activities or programs that help them stay active and involved in their communities. Many senior women are interested in finding ways to maintain and improve both their physical and mental health.
Thank you for your attention. I'd be pleased to answer any questions.