Obesity rates higher in U.S. than Canada: Study

When it comes to obesity, American women tip the scales compared to their Canadian sisters, a cross-border health study confirms for the first time.

When it comes to obesity, American women tip the scales compared to their Canadian sisters, a cross-border health study confirms for the first time. Overall, 21 per cent of Americans were obese compared with 15 per cent of Canadians, says the study released today by Statistics Canada and the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. And one in five American women reported they were obese, compared with one in eight Canadian women. Previous research has suggested obesity may be more prevalent in the United States, but this is the first definitive confirmation, said Diane Finegood, a scientific director of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR). “Whenever I go down there I think, God, there really is a difference, but this is in fact the first data I’m aware of where a survey was done at the same time in Canada and the United States with the same questions and the same methodology by the same people,” said Finegood. U.S. women were also more likely to suffer severe mobility problems than those in Canada. Seven per cent of the American females reported they could not walk, stand or climb, compared with four per cent of their Canadian counterparts. The study does not explain the differences between the two countries, although Finegood said it might have to do with different levels of physical activity. In both countries, poor people were more likely to report health problems, but the difference between rich and poor was much greater in the United States. Thirty-one per cent of Americans in the lowest income group reported their health was only fair or poor, versus 23 per cent of low-income Canadians. “Americans in the poorest income quintile report fair or poor health, obesity and severe mobility impairment more frequently than their Canadian counterparts,” says the study. The great majority in both countries – 88 per cent of Canadians and 85 per cent of Americans – considered themselves in good, very good or excellent health. The similar levels of satisfaction are surprising since Americans spend proportionately more on health, said Morris Barer, Scientific Director of CIHR’s Institute of Health Services and Policy Research. “The general impression I took away from this is Americans seem more satisfied to be spending a lot more money than Canadians to get equivalent health status.” In both countries, roughly 10 per cent of the population report having unmet health needs, but most Americans cite cost as the main barrier to care while the Canadians tend to blame waiting lists. Americans with medical insurance were more satisfied with their health system than Canadians, but Americans who did not have insurance – 11 per cent of the U.S. population – were less satisfied than Canadians, who have universal health care. (Source: Toronto Star Health, June 2004)