The number of residents the Sun Country Health Region oversees in southwest Saskatchewan, has increased by more than 3,400 in the past year according to statistics revealed by the region in their annual report that was released earlier this summer.
Sun Country now has 59,984 people residing within its boundaries, compared with 56,529 Saskatchewan Health card-carrying residents last year.
That was just one statistic coming from the annual report that focuses on all things related to the delivery of health-care services in the geographic region that includes health-care facilities from Wawota to the north, to Pangman and Ogema to the west and the U.S. and Manitoba borders to the south and east.
The two per cent increase in the population to be served corresponds evenly with the two per cent increase observed in the province and a two per cent increase in the health region’s population base in 2013-14.
The gender distribution went essentially unchanged with 48.9 per cent of the SCHR population being female and 51.1 being men.
The proportion of persons between the ages of 25 and 44 was higher than the age group between 45 and 64 at 27 per cent and 26 per cent respectively. Fifteen per cent of the population in SCHR is aged 65 or older compared with 14 per cent across the whole province.
About 42 per cent of the southeast’s population resides either in Estevan or Weyburn, while another 29 per cent live in towns and the remaining 29 per cent live in villages, rural municipalities and reserves.
Across the wide spectrum, almost 58 per cent of the respondents to a SCHR survey considered themselves to be in very good or excellent health and 69 per cent reported to be in a very good or excellent mental health state. The provincial figures for those two categories are 56.9 and 67.7 per cent, respectively.
Compared with rates across the province, SCHR residents were more likely to smoke daily and less likely to engage in leisure-time physical activity. Just under 21 per cent of the adult male population reported to be smokers, while 18.6 per cent of the females said they smoked. Provincailly, 16.2 per cent of the daily smokers are male, while 17.4 per cent of the regular smokers are women.
On the alcohol consumption side, 26.6 per cent of the males in the southeast said they were heavy drinkers, while only 7.5 per cent of the females entered the same category. Across the province 25.9 per cent of the men said they drank heavily as did 13.8 per cent of the women.
When it came to leisure time physical activities, the men and women in the southeast sector lagged slightly behind the rest of the province at 52.1 per cent compared with 53.1 per cent in the rest of Saskatchewan.
In follow-up reports, the Mercury will bring out various other statistical facts concerning the well-being of southeast Saskatchewan residents and the financial picture of the Sun Country Health Region.
