ArticleCMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne2025
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.
Article in CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Reduced Phrenic CMAP Amplitudes in Obesity Despite Preserved Diaphragm Ultrasound Measures.Muscle & nerve · 2026Article
- Changes in obesity and waist circumference in children and parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.Scientific reports · 2026Observational
- Clock Gene Variants Are Associated with Energy and Macronutrient Intake in Early Childhood and Adulthood.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Prepregnancy body mass index in Ontario from 2012 to 2022: A population-based descriptive study.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2026Article
- Pilot Study on the Use of Rheology and Low Field Nmr to Characterize the Liver of Obese Patients Undergoing Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Bariatric Surgery in the Era of GLP1RA: A Narrative Review.Advances in therapy · 2026Review
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Abstract
backgroundThe 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.
methodsWe 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.
resultsOur unweighted analytic sample included 746 250 adults from the 2009-2023 surveys. The prevalence of BMI-defined obesity increased from 24.95% in 2009 to 32.69% in 2023 (absolute increase 7.74%). The COVID-19 pandemic period was associated with an adjusted annual increase in the relative odds of obesity that was 1.02 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01-1.04) times greater than the prepandemic period. The absolute rate of increase of BMI-defined obesity nearly doubled during the pandemic, with an annual average excess rate of 0.44 (95% CI 0.14-0.74) percentage points. Class II and III obesity increased at a greater absolute rate than class I, indicating a shift toward more severe obesity. The relative increase in class III obesity was greater among young adults and females.
interpretationSince the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalence of BMI-defined obesity, and especially class III obesity, increased at a faster rate than before the pandemic. Some groups that historically had lower levels of obesity were disproportionately affected during the pandemic.
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