Abstract
Context:
Obesity rates are rising sharply among all industrialized countries; the situation seems to be worse in English speaking countries. Taking into account genetic predisposition, excess of caloric intake combined with low energy expenditure will usually result in obesity.
Objectives:
To describe and compare regional obesity rates across Canada and assess the ecological relationship between regional rates of obesity, low level of leisure-time physical activity, and low fruit and vegetable consumption.
Design:
Cross-sectional population-based analysis from the 2003 Canadian Community Health Survey.
Measures and data analyses:
Canadian population distributions of body mass index (BMI), leisure-time physical activity and daily fruit and vegetable consumption were obtained from Statistics Canada. All these measures were based on the respondent's self-reported answers to a computer-assisted personal or telephone interview. Obesity rates (BMI⩾30), rates of low level of leisure-time physical activity (less than 1.5 kcal of energy expenditure per day), and rates of low fruit and vegetable consumption (less than five times a day) for the 106 Canadian Health regions were mapped to illustrate their geographical distribution. Cartograms were used in addition to traditional mapping to take into account the differences in population density between these small areas.
Results:
In 2003, 15.2% of Canadian individuals aged 20 years and older were considered obese. The rates of obesity varied substantially between the 106 Canadian health regions: from 6.2% in Vancouver to 47.5% in aboriginal population area. At the health region level, low leisure-time physical activity and low fruit and vegetable consumption are both good predictors of obesity (odds ratio of 9.2 and positive predictive value of 93% when considered simultaneously).
Conclusion:
There is a strong gradient in obesity prevalence between Canadian health regions. At the regional level, high rates of low level of physical activity, and high rates of low fruit and vegetable consumption were both found good predictors of high rates of obesity.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chopra M, Galbraith S, Darnton-Hill I . A global response to a global problem: the epidemic of overnutrition. Bull World Health Organization 2002; 80: 952–958.
Cutler DM, Glaeser EL, Shapiro JM . Why have Americans become more obese? J Econ Perspect 2003; 17: 93–118.
Calle EE, Rodriguez C, Walker-Thurmond K, Thun MJ . Overweight, obesity, and mortality from cancer in a prospectively studied cohort of U.S. adults. N Engl J Med 2003; 348: 1625–1638.
Field AE, Coakley EH, Must A, Spadano JL, Laird N, Dietz WH et al. Impact of overweight on the risk of developing common chronic diseases during a 10-year period. Arch Int Med 2001; 161: 1581–1586.
Visscher TLS, Seidell J . The public health impact of obesity. Ann Rev Publ Health 2001; 22: 355–375.
Birmingham CL, Muller JL, Palepu A, Spinelli JJ, Anis AH . The cost of obesity in Canada. Can Med Assoc J 1999; 160: 483–488.
Sturm R . The effects of obesity, smoking, and drinking on medical problems and costs. Health Affairs 2002; 21: 245–253.
Katzmarzyk PT, Janssen I . The economic costs associated with physical inactivity and obesity in Canada: An update. Can J Appl Physiol 2004; 29: 90–115.
Katzmarzyk PT . The Canadian obesity epidemic, 1985–1998. Can Med Assoc J 2002a; 166: 1039–1040.
Katzmarzyk PT . The Canadian obesity epidemic: An historical perspective. Obes Res 2002b; 10: 666–674.
Tremblay MS, Katzmarzyk PT, Willms JD . Temporal trends in overweight and obesity in Canada, 1981–1996. Int J Obes 2002; 26: 538–543.
Willms JD, Tremblay MS, Katzmarzyk PT . Geographic and demographic variation in the prevalence of overweight Canadian children. Obes Res 2003; 11: 668–673.
Gray-Donald K, Jacob-Starkey L, Johnson-Down L . Food habits of Canadians: Reduction in fat intake over a generation. Can J Publ Health 2000; 91: 381–385.
Perez CE . Fruit and vegetable consumption. Health Rep 2002; 13: 23–31.
Bryan S, Walsh P . Physical activity and obesity in Canadian women. BMC Women's Health 2004; 4 (Suppl I): S6.
Tremblay MS, Willms JD . Is the Canadian childhood obesity epidemic related to physical inactivity? Int J Obes 2003; 27: 1100–1105.
Craig CL, Russell SJ, Cameron C, Bauman A . Twenty-year trends in physical activity among Canadian adults. Can J Publ Health 2004; 95: 59–63.
Raine K . Overweight and Obesity in Canada. A Population Health Perspective. Canadian Institute for Health Information: Ottawa, 2004.
Cromley EK . GIS and disease. Ann Rev Publ Health 2003; 24: 7–24.
Rushton G . Public Health, GIS, and spatial analytic tools. Ann Rev Publ Health 2003; 24: 43–56.
Natural Resource Canada. Land and freshwater area. Government of Canada 2001. Available from http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/learningresources/facts/surfareas.html. Accessed October 2005.
Health Canada. Canadian Community Health Survey, 2003. Available from http://www.statcan.ca. Accessed October 2005.
Health Canada. Canadian Guidelines for Body Weight: Classification in Adults. Health Canada: Ottawa, 2003.
World Health Organization. Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic WHO Technical Report Series No. 894. World Health Organization: Geneva, 2000.
Statistics Canada. Canadian Community Health Survey 2003. Available from http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/82-221-XIE/2004002/defin2.htm. Accessed October 2005.
Bao S, Chen CH, Di L, Ding Y, Li B, Liu L et al. (eds). International symposium on geoinformatics and socioinformatics and geoinformatics '99, 1999. Proceedings of geoinformatics and socioinformatics; June 1999; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Kocmoud DJ . Constructing Continuous Cartograms: A Constraint-Based Approach MS Thesis, Texas A&M University, December 1997.
Keim DA, North SC, Panse S . Cartodraw: a fast ALGORITHM for generating continuous cartograms. IEEE Trans Visual Comput Graph 2004; 10: 95–110.
Gastner MT, Newman ME . Diffusion-based method for producing density-equalizing maps. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2004; 101: 7499–7504.
Cromley EK, McLafferty SL . GIS and Public Health. The Guilford Press, New York, 2002.
Katzmarzyk PT, Ardern CI . Overweight and obesity mortality trends in Canada, 1985–2000. Can J Publ Health 2004; 95: 16–20.
Reeder BA, Chen Y, Macdonald SM, Angel A, Sweet L . Regional and rural-urban differences in obesity in Canada. Canadian Heart Health Surveys Research Group. CMAJ 1997; 157: S10–S16.
Huot I, Paradis G, Ledoux M . Quebec Heart Health Demonstration Project research group. Factors associated with overweight and obesity in Quebec adults. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2004; 28: 766–774.
Vandegrift D, Yoked T . Obesity rates, income, and suburban sprawl: an analysis of US states. Health Place 2004; 10: 221–229.
Tjepkema M . Adult obesity in Canada: measured height and weight. Nutrition Findings from the Canadian Community Health Survey 2004; Issue no. 1. Available from http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/82-620-MIE/2005001/articles/adults/aobesity.htm. Accessed October 2005.
Acknowledgements
We are indebted to Michael T Gastner and Mark Newman for their valuable help by generously sharing their algorithm for producing cartograms. This project was subsidized by the GEOIDE Network of Centers of Excellence and Merck Frosst Canada Ltd. The principal investigator was supported by the Department of Family Medicine, Université de Sherbrooke; the Clinical Research Center, Sherbrooke University Hospital; and the FRSQ.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on International Journal of Obesity website (http://www.nature.com/ijo).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vanasse, A., Demers, M., Hemiari, A. et al. Obesity in Canada: where and how many?. Int J Obes 30, 677–683 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803168
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803168
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Visualizing statistical significance of disease clusters using cartograms
International Journal of Health Geographics (2017)
-
A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Adult Obesity: Evidence from Canada
Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy (2016)
-
An Overview of Links Between Obesity and Mental Health
Current Obesity Reports (2015)
-
Examining Aspects of the Built Environment: An Evaluation of a Community Walking Map Project
Canadian Journal of Public Health (2012)
-
Forearm Bone Mineral Density Varies as a Function of Adiposity in Inuit Women 40–90 Years of Age During the Vitamin D–Synthesizing Period
Calcified Tissue International (2012)