News Release

1999-17
February 8, 1999

Minister Rock launches Healthy Heart Kit

Ottawa- Health Minister Allan Rock, together with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, today launched The Healthy Heart Kit, a user-friendly information package based on the latest scientific evidence, designed to help doctors and their patients work together to prevent and fight heart disease.

"The Healthy Heart Kit is an excellent example of how disease prevention and health promotion can form an integrated approach to health care," said the Minister. "Health Canada has worked with four partners, representing the best expertise in Canada, to create a tool that will help Canadians maintain and improve their health."

The Healthy Heart Kit is a risk management and patient education kit for the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the promotion of cardiovascular health. The kit has been designed for primary care physicians to use with their adult patients who have one or more risk factors for heart disease including stroke which can be reduced by modifying personal behaviours. Those modifiable risks include: smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, overweight, sedentary lifestyle, and diabetes.

Heart disease and stroke are the leading cause of death in Canada accounting for 37% of all deaths. Seventy-five per cent (75%) of Canadian adults have one or more of these risk factors.

"Part of the mission of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada is to promote healthy lifestyles by teaching people how to reduce their risk of developing heart disease," said Audrey Vandewater, president of the Foundation. "The more ways we can get that information across, the better chance we have of reducing the disability and death caused by the number one killer of Canadians."

The Kit has two components: the Physician's Guide which provides tools needed by physicians to make cadiovascular disease prevention systematic, and patient information brochures on each of the six CVD risk factors. Distribution of the complete kit will begin with its provision to 5,000 primary care physicians across Canada by the end of March; the content of the patient information brochures will be available to the general public through the Health Canada website.

"Family practioners are the first line of defense against heart disease for most Canadians," said Dr. Hugh Scully, president of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. "Cardiovascular specialists see this kit as an important addition to the clinician's arsenal in the battle against cardiovascular disease. It will help us work with Canadians to save lives."

The Healthy Heart Kit was launched on Parliament Hill as part of the "Heart on the Hill" event sponsored by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. In addition, the Heart Institute of Ottawa organized a "Heart Check Centre" which checked participants' blood pressure, body mass index and cholesterol levels to provide participants with a Comprehensive Cardiovascular Risk Score.

The development of the kit was co-ordinated by Health Canada as part of its long term strategy to improve access to disease prevention services in Canada. Over the past five years Health Canada has contributed $725,900 towards development, evaluation and production of the Kit. This project is a joint venture involving partners in the private, voluntary, public health, and NGO sectors. These include the College of Family Physicians of Canada; Unité Santé physique, Direction de la santé publique, Régie régionale de la santé et des services sociaux de Montréal-Centre; Heart and Stroke Foundations of Canada and Quebec. The Kit has been endorsed by the College of Family Physicians of Canada, Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Medical Association.

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Media Inquiries
Derek Kent 
Office of Allan Rock
(613) 957-1515

Barbara Steele
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
Canadian Cardiovascular Society
(613) 569-4361, ext. 318

Public Inquiries
(613) 957-2991