Skip to main content
NCBI home page
CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal logoLink to CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal
. 1995 Jun 1;152(11):1811–1817.

Correlates of body mass index in the 1990 Ontario Health Survey.

T Ostbye 1, J Pomerleau 1, M Speechley 1, L L Pederson 1, K N Speechley 1
PMCID: PMC1337978  PMID: 7773897

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To determine the average body mass index (BMI) and the prevalence of overweight and obesity among people aged 20 to 64 years, to identify sociodemographic, lifestyle and health variables that correlate with overweight and obesity, and, through a comparison of the results with those from an earlier survey, to determine whether prevalence has changed over time. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Ontario. PARTICIPANTS: The 1990 Ontario Health Survey surveyed 61,239 people representative of the Ontario population. The authors' analyses were restricted to those aged 20 to 64 years, excluding pregnant women. In the multivariate analyses they included only people with no missing values for any of the variables in the models (n = 26,306). OUTCOME MEASURES: BMI (weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared) was used to measure healthy weight (BMI between 20 and 25), overweight (BMI greater than 25) and obesity (BMI greater than 27). RESULTS: The prevalence of obesity among men and women was 33.6% and 22.8% respectively (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.78, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.63 to 1.95). There was a positive relation with age (adjusted OR 1.53 [95% CI 1.24 to 1.89] for age 25 to 29 years and 2.78 [95% CI 2.20 to 3.51] for age 50 to 54 years compared with age 20 to 24 years) and an inverse relation with education level (postsecondary education v. primary education: adjusted OR 0.65 [95% CI 0.54 to 0.79]). Analysis of birthplace showed that the prevalence of obesity was lowest among those born in Asia (compared with Canadian born: adjusted OR 0.36 [95% CI 0.27 to 0.47]). The prevalence was higher among former smokers than among those who had never smoked (adjusted OR 1.20 [95% CI 1.18 to 1.22]). People with more health problems and those who rated their health as fair or poor were more likely to be obese. The estimates of the prevalence of obesity were higher than those reported in the 1985 Health Promotion Survey for both sexes in all three age groups examined. CONCLUSIONS: These self-reported data indicate that overweight and obesity remain important health problems in Ontario, and the prevalence appears to be increasing.

Full text

PDF
1811

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Dryson E., Metcalf P., Baker J., Scragg R. The relationship between body mass index and socioeconomic status in New Zealand: ethnic and occupational factors. N Z Med J. 1992 Jun 24;105(936):233–235. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Hunter D. J., Willett W. C. Diet, body size, and breast cancer. Epidemiol Rev. 1993;15(1):110–132. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.epirev.a036096. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Jeffery R. W. Minnesota studies on community-based approaches to weight loss and control. Ann Intern Med. 1993 Oct 1;119(7 Pt 2):719–721. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-119-7_Part_2-199310011-00018. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Jiang Z. M., Yang N. F., Chou C., Liu Z. H., Sun T. L., Chen Y. H., Xue B. Z., Fei L. M., Tseng H. C., Brown E. Body composition in Chinese subjects: comparison with data from North America. World J Surg. 1991 Jan-Feb;15(1):95–102. doi: 10.1007/BF01658974. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Kannel W. B., Cupples L. A., Ramaswami R., Stokes J., 3rd, Kreger B. E., Higgins M. Regional obesity and risk of cardiovascular disease; the Framingham Study. J Clin Epidemiol. 1991;44(2):183–190. doi: 10.1016/0895-4356(91)90265-b. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Kim K. K., Yu E. S., Liu W. T., Kim J., Kohrs M. B. Nutritional status of Chinese-, Korean-, and Japanese-American elderly. J Am Diet Assoc. 1993 Dec;93(12):1416–1422. doi: 10.1016/0002-8223(93)92245-s. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Kuskowska-Wolk A., Bergström R. Trends in body mass index and prevalence of obesity in Swedish men 1980-89. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1993 Apr;47(2):103–108. doi: 10.1136/jech.47.2.103. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Laurier D., Guiguet M., Chau N. P., Wells J. A., Valleron A. J. Prevalence of obesity: a comparative survey in France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 1992 Aug;16(8):565–572. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Lissner L., Bengtsson C., Lapidus L., Björkelund C. Smoking initiation and cessation in relation to body fat distribution based on data from a study of Swedish women. Am J Public Health. 1992 Feb;82(2):273–275. doi: 10.2105/ajph.82.2.273. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. McGinnis J. M., Ballard-Barbash R. M. Obesity in minority populations: policy implications of research. Am J Clin Nutr. 1991 Jun;53(6 Suppl):1512S–1514S. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/53.6.1512S. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Must A., Jacques P. F., Dallal G. E., Bajema C. J., Dietz W. H. Long-term morbidity and mortality of overweight adolescents. A follow-up of the Harvard Growth Study of 1922 to 1935. N Engl J Med. 1992 Nov 5;327(19):1350–1355. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199211053271904. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Negri E., Pagano R., Decarli A., La Vecchia C. Body weight and the prevalence of chronic diseases. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1988 Mar;42(1):24–29. doi: 10.1136/jech.42.1.24. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Pi-Sunyer F. X. Health implications of obesity. Am J Clin Nutr. 1991 Jun;53(6 Suppl):1595S–1603S. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/53.6.1595S. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Rolls B. J., Shide D. J. The influence of dietary fat on food intake and body weight. Nutr Rev. 1992 Oct;50(10):283–290. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-4887.1992.tb02466.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Ross C. E., Mirowsky J. Social epidemiology of overweight: a substantive and methodological investigation. J Health Soc Behav. 1983 Sep;24(3):288–298. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Rowland M. L. Self-reported weight and height. Am J Clin Nutr. 1990 Dec;52(6):1125–1133. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/52.6.1125. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Rowland M. L. Self-reported weight and height. Am J Clin Nutr. 1990 Dec;52(6):1125–1133. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/52.6.1125. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Sargent J. D., Blanchflower D. G. Obesity and stature in adolescence and earnings in young adulthood. Analysis of a British birth cohort. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1994 Jul;148(7):681–687. doi: 10.1001/archpedi.1994.02170070019003. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. St Jeor S. T., Brownell K. D., Atkinson R. L., Bouchard C., Dwyer J., Foreyt J. P., Heber D., Kris-Etherton P., Stern J. S., Willett W. Obesity. Workshop III. AHA Prevention Conference III. Behavior change and compliance: keys to improving cardiovascular health. Circulation. 1993 Sep;88(3):1391–1396. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.88.3.1391. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Stunkard A. J. Conservative treatments for obesity. Am J Clin Nutr. 1987 May;45(5 Suppl):1142–1154. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/45.5.1142. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal are provided here courtesy of Canadian Medical Association

RESOURCES