CORRELATES OF BODY-WEIGHT IN THE 1994 NATIONAL-POPULATION HEALTH SURVEY

OBJECTIVE: This study examines three specific questions about obesity and overweight, using a nationally representative sample of Canadians. Are sociodemographic and lifestyle behaviors associated with body wei ght? is body weight correlated with specific health outcomes? Has the prevalence of obesity in Canada changed since 1978? METHODS: Secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional survey. SAMPLE: This study uses th e 1994 National Population Health Survey (NPHS) by Statistics Canada. It is a stratified random sample of 19600 Canadians across ail provinc es. RESULTS: The results show that age, gender, education, birth place and region, are significantly associated with obesity. When a lower c riterion is used for overweight and obesity (body mass index, BMI grea ter than or equal to 25), dummy variables for marital status and occup ation are also significant. Second, obesity is associated with poorer self-rated health, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, arthr itis, respiratory and stomach problems. For those respondents who have a BMI score of 25 or greater, there is also an association with strok e. Finally, it is unclear whether the prevalence of obesity has change d. However, there appears to be a systematic difference between studie s using actual height and weight measurements (anthropometric) vs self -reported measurements. CONCLUSIONS: Weight can be considered a modifi able risk factor and reductions in the prevalence of obesity should re duce the risk of specific chronic conditions. Provincial variations in the prevalence of obesity (BMI greater than or equal to 27) and overw eight and obesity (BMI greater than or equal to 25) suggest that colla psing provinces into regions may obscure important interprovincial dif ferences in body weight. More research is required to assess whether o r not obesity is decreasing in Canada. Some of the limitations of self -reported data are discussed.