(Dr. Brian Goldman/ CBC radio) — The Public Health Agency of Canada says a third of all heart attacks and a quarter of strokes happen to Canadians in mid-career. A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal tallies the economic fallout. The financial cost of a heart attack or stroke can be huge.
Researchers from the Universities of Manitoba, Toronto, Michigan, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Statistics Canada looked at a database that linked hospitalization and income tax records in the years 2005 to 2013. The researchers looked at more than 24, 000 people ages 40 to 61 who had a heart attack, cardiac arrest or stroke. To be included in the study, participants had to have worked in the two years prior to being hospitalized. They were compared to healthy people of the same age.
For those who had a heart attack, the annual loss of income was $3,834 in 2012 Canadian dollars. For those who survived a witnessed cardiac arrest, the financial hit was $11,143. The biggest financial loss came to people who had a stroke. For them, the hit was $13,278. (…)