(From First Call:)     
Obesity in Canadais a joint report from the Canadian Population Health Initiative of the Canadian Institute for Health Information and the Public Health Agency of Canada. The report examines the prevalence of obesity among adults, children, youth and Aboriginal Peoples, presents new analyses of the determinants of obesity using innovative measures, and reports on the impact of obesity in Canada. In addition, Canadian and international lessons learned in obesity prevention and reduction are highlighted.
 
Excerpts:
 
The prevalence of measured obesity was 2.5 times higher in 2004 than 1978/79 among children and youth aged 2 to 17. In particular, among youth aged 12 to 17 obesity tripled from 3% to 9.4%.
 
Measured obesity is 8.6% among children and youth aged 6 to 17, and earlier estimates suggest that 6.3% of children aged 2 to 5 are obese.
 
In most age groups of children and youth, according to self-reported and measured data, obesity is more prevalent among boys than girls.
 
There are a number of research gaps and methodological challenges in studying obesity in this population, including different systems for defining overweight and obesity at different ages and the study of prevalence among very young children.
 
The development of improved measurement, ongoing surveillance and longitudinal studies could help to enhance the understanding of obesity in children and youth.
 
Read the report here.