The weight of Canadians in 2002:

Profiles of women and men, parents, employed parents, women and men, French and non-French Roman Catholics, liberal Protestants, and conservative Christians; with the results of regression estimates of the body mass index of women and men, mothers and fathers

August 2008

                                                                      ·   index  ·   paper (471 KB, 121 p.)  ·   appendix 2 (919 KB, 445 p.)

Abstract

        Our assumption in this study is that excess weight as measured by the BMI, is a public "bad", and is positively associated with other public bads, such as gambling, smoking, illicit drug use and intoxication, and negatively associated with public goods such as education and spiritual health.

        The evidence from tables and analyses supports this assumption only in part, for education, physical activity, and sleep, for example.

        A third type of assumption is that overweight reduces the quality of life, satisfaction with life and ability to function well in life and work for example. Again the evidence only weakly supports this assumption.

        The detailed evidence is presented in tables that profile Canadians who are of insufficient weight (7% overall), of acceptable weight (41%), with some excess weight (17%), and who are overweight (35%). 39% of men are overweight and 30% of women, an "advantage" true in most sub-groups.

        The percentage overweight rises consistently with age, from 21% for those 20 to 24, to 43% for those 60 to 64. It is lowest in Quebec and British Columbia, 32% each, and highest in Newfoundland, 49%, then Saskatchewan, 45%, and New Brunswick and Manitoba, 43%.

        Concerning public bads, the percentage overweight rises strongly with the frequency of overeating or undereating to relieve stress (31% never, to 53% often), with the frequency of gambling (non-gambler, 29%; problem gambler, 40%)

        Concerning public goods, the percentage overweight unexpectedly rises with the frequency of praying or seeking spiritual help to relieve stress, (27% never, to 35% often), worship, and religiosity; but as expected falls with the frequency of exercising to relieve stress (39% never, to 28% often).

        The percentage overweight varies little by satisfaction with life in general.

        Also as expected, the percentage overweight falls with education (43% of those without a secondary diploma, 33% of those with a post-secondary degree or diploma). It falls with activity limitations (33% of those with no activity limitations, and 45% of those with frequent limitations).

        The results of preliminary analyses of the BMI reveal, for all subpopulations studied, strong positive associations with age, and being male (rather than female), and strong negative associations with education, hours of sleep, and being non-Christian rather than liberal Christian.

        Associations were statistically insignificant in all subpopulations between the BMI (natural log in all analyses) and the number of children under six, marijuana smoking, the spiritual health indicator (except for men, a negative association) and Alberta (compared with Ontario).