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The findings — which were — were based on the health data of nearly 750,000 Canadian adults over 18. It was collected through the annual Canadian Community Health Survey between 2009 to 2023.

Researchers used body mass index (BMI) as a metric for obesity — a measure that lead author and McMaster associate professor Laura Anderson acknowledged is not perfect.

“It is not a direct measure of body fat. It’s also not a direct measure of health outcomes,” Anderson said. “But for large, population-based studies where we’re looking at screening, we can still use BMI because it is a proxy for obesity.”

The study does not go into the potential reasons for the jump in obesity rates coming out of the pandemic, but Anderson said she and the other researchers hypothesize that it was the changes to physical activity and sedentary time from public health lockdowns that likely contributed.

Anderson believes women and young adults were particularly affected due to added mental health challenges.

“We know that women had, in many cases, an additional burden of caregiving duties during the pandemic,” she said. “It’s possible the stress associated with caregiving and other different patterns of employment could be associated with the increased risk.”

Whether obesity rates continue to increase or start declining remains unclear, but Anderson stressed that any treatments or preventions for obesity cannot be one size fits all.

“Obesity is a complex condition with multiple different causes,” she said, adding that it can’t all be blamed on individual-level behaviours.

“Shifting to more of an upstream thinking about changing the policies that can support health behaviours is really the way forward.”

Some of these changes could ensure people have access to healthier food or greater health education, or even making sure there are enough primary-care physicians available for people looking for help with their weight, Anderson said.

Sanjeev Sockalingam, a psychiatry professor at the University of É«É«À² and the scientific director for the advocacy group Obesity Canada, said it’s important any treatment avoids any stigma.

“We need to think about compassionate approaches where we can mitigate this stigma and bias as much as we can,” he said, noting that many people living with obesity might worry about talking to their doctor about their weight due to bad experiences in the past.

Part of this means educating current and future health-care providers on how to have discussions around weight and obesity with patients, but also reducing biases within the greater public.

“Allies to patients who are living with obesity can be advocates as well to help with that change,” Sockalingam said.