In healthy competition, Canadians top Americans

You can add Canadians to the list of foreigners who are healthier than Americans.

Americans are 42% more likely than Canadians to have diabetes, 32% more likely to have high blood pressure, and 12% more likely to have arthritis, according to a Harvard survey in which American and Canadian adults were asked over the telephone about their health.

The study comes less than a month after other researchers reported that middle-aged white Americans are much sicker than their counterparts in England. The study, released Tuesday, is being published in the American Journal of Public Health.

It is based on a telephone survey of about 3,500 Canadians and 5,200 U.S. residents in 2002 to 2003.

Among the findings: 6.7% of Americans and 4.7% of Canadians reported having diabetes; 18.3% and 13.9%, respectively, reported having high blood pressure; and 17.9% and 16% said they had arthritis.

About 21% of Americans said they were obese, compared with 15% of Canadians.