Trends in obesity defined by body mass index among adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a repeated cross-sectional study of the 2009-2023 Canadian Community Heath Surveys.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic affected health behaviours and the social determinants of health. We sought to describe trends in the prevalence in body mass index (BMI) categories before and during the COVID-19 pandemic among adults in Canada.

Methods

We conducted a repeated cross-sectional study of adults in the 2009-2023 Canadian Community Health Surveys. We compared changes after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2020 to December 2023) to an 11-year prepandemic period (January 2009 to March 2020). We calculated odds ratios (ORs) and absolute percentages from, respectively, weighted logistic and linear regression models.

Results

Our unweighted analytic sample included 746 250 adults from the 2009-2023 surveys. The prevalence of BMI-defined obesity increase

SUBMITTER: Anderson LN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12356621 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature