New research from Statistics Canada, the Functional health of Canadian adults, 2015 to 2024, shows that the functional health of Canadian adults has declined over the past decade. They say this is largely due to deteriorating emotional health and the increasing prevalence of pain.
Emotional health decreased more than any other attribute, from 78.3 per cent in 2015 to 61.2 per cent in 2024. The percentage of adults with no pain or discomfort also decreased from 77.9 per cent to 72 per cent during the same study period.
Measured using the Health Utilities Index Mark 3 from Statistics Canada, functional health measures include vision, hearing, speech, cognition, dexterity, mobility, emotional health and pain. Overall, the percentage of Canadian adults with very good to perfect functional health declined from 68.6 per cent in 2015 to 56.4 per cent in 2024. Functional health remained the same for those over age 75 and declined for all younger age groups.
“In all years, Canadians aged 75 and older had lower functional health than younger age groups, while among all adults aged 18 and older, females had worse functional health than males,” the report states.
Functional health decreased in all provinces. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick reported the lowest number of adults with very good to perfect functional health: just 47.7 per cent and 48.3 per cent of adults in those two provinces, respectively, scored highly in this category. Quebec had the highest functional health, with 65.6 per cent of Quebec residents having very good to perfect functional health in 2024.
