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Heads Up for Healthier Brains Media
Kit
Jan.
2, 2007
Poll Summary Sheet
For immediate release
Jan. 2, 2007
For a full poll summary report, please contact:
Patricia Wilkinson,
Alzheimer Society of Canada
(416)847-3868, or e-mail at PWilkinson@alzheimer.ca
'Brain Health' Public Opinion Poll
In October 2006, Leger Marketing conducted a public opinion poll on behalf of the Alzheimer Society of Canada. The objective of the poll was to determine the general public's level of knowledge regarding brain health and Alzheimer's disease. The poll was based on a randomly selected sample of 1,859 adult Canadians¹. The following is a summary of the results.
Physical Health vs. Brain Health
- 78% of Canadians said brain health is as important as physical health, with an additional 19% saying it is actually more important.
- However, when asked to name the first thing that comes to mind when describing a 'healthy person', 63% of people said physical fitness, and 32% said healthy eating habits. Only 5% of people answered being socially or intellectually active as attributes of a healthy person.
Keeping Your Brain Healthy
- There was no agreed upon notion on what it meant to keep the brain healthy. The most common notion, at 19%, was being mentally active, with an additional 18% saying they didn't know.
- When asked what one should do in order to keep the brain healthy, 27% said exercising the brain, while another 20% said reading. Only 15% said eating right and staying healthy, followed by 7% who said staying physically active.
- Canadians said that a favourite social activity for them was enjoying time with family and friends. 63% enjoyed this activity one to four days a week, with an additionally 16% enjoying it every day. However, when asked what their primary motivation was for doing so, only 29% associated it with improving brain health.
- In terms of brain challenging activities, 38% of Canadians said they participated in hobbies (such as reading, painting or sewing) every day, with an additional 41% doing so one to four times a week. Similar to social activity, however, only 35% of people associated these activities with improving brain health.
- When asked whether trying something new, such as brushing your hair with the opposite hand, may reduce their likelihood of developing the disease, 45% of people were unsure, with an additional 43% disagreeing.
- The poll showed that stress reduction through relaxation and meditation is not commonly practiced, with 33% of people saying they only occasionally practiced it, and 32% saying they never did.
Healthy living and its connection to brain health
- About 70% of the people surveyed said they ate brain healthy foods and engaged in cardiovascular exercise a few times a week.
- 61% of Canadians said maintaining a healthy weight and feeling good was what motivated them to eat healthy. Only 20% said they were eating healthy to help prevent illness, with an additionally 11% saying it was to live longer.
- What motivates Canadians to exercise regularly appears to be about the same as eating healthy: 67% said to feel good and maintain a healthy weight. In this case, however, only 9% said they exercised to prevent illness, and 8% to live longer.
- While diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and obesity are all risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, more than 50% of people were unsure if they were, with an additional 15% disagreeing altogether. 70% did, however, agree that smoking negatively impacts brain health.
Protecting your head
- 96% of Canadians said they always wear a seatbelt, however 31% said the never wear a helmet when participating in activities like riding a bike, skiing or rollerblading.
- 67% of Canadians said their primary motivation to wear a helmet was to protect their head from injury, but only 6% stated it was because of fear of long term-brain damage.
- In fact, when asked, 78% of people were either unsure or disagreed altogether that brain injuries can be linked to the later development of Alzheimer's disease.
What Canadians say about Alzheimer's disease
- Alzheimer's disease is the second most feared disease among Canadians as they age, tied with heart disease (Cancer is the most feared). Canadians that fear Alzheimer's disease the most are generally over the age of 45.
- 32% of people said they personally know someone with Alzheimer's disease. 21% said they have someone with the disease in their family.
- 71% of people were aware that there is no cure for Alzheimer's disease, and 70% of people were also aware that memory loss in itself doesn't mean Alzheimer's disease.
¹ The poll was based on a randomly selected sample of 1,859 adult Canadians. With a sample of this size, results are considered to be accurate to within +/- 2.27 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. This data was statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data.
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