Health Reports

A Canadian peer-reviewed journal of population health and health services research

January 2022

Why are babies in Canada getting smaller?

by Shiraz El Adam, Jennifer A. Hutcheon, Chris McLeod and Kim McGrail

Small-for-gestational-age (SGA) birth, defined as a birth weight below the 10th percentile of a reference population by sex and gestational age, is commonly monitored as a public health indicator because of its role as a proxy for fetal growth restriction. SGA infants are at an increased risk of neonatal complications including hypothermia, hypoglycemia, hyperglycaemia, hypocalcaemia, polycythemia, jaundice, feeding difficulties, feed intolerance, necrotizing enterocolitis, late onset sepsis and pulmonary haemorrhage as well as infant death. The life-long health risks associated with small size at birth include increased risks of impaired neurodevelopment, psychological or emotional distress, and non-communicable diseases.

Full article PDF version

Health associations with meeting the Canadian 24-hour movement guidelines for adults: Results from the Canadian Health Measures Survey

by Scott Rollo, Justin J. Lang, Karen C. Roberts, Felix Bang, Valerie Carson, Jean-Philippe Chaput, Rachel C. Colley, Ian Janssen and Mark S. Tremblay

Adequate physical activity, low sedentary time and sufficient sleep duration are all separately associated with better health status among adults and older adults. These individual behaviours—collectively referred to as 24-hour movement behaviours—are inherently codependent with one another within the fixed 24-hour time frame. Because of this, a new public health promotion approach focusing on the integration of all movement behaviours over the whole day has been gaining momentum. Recently, several studies have investigated how different combinations or “cocktails” of 24-hour movement behaviours relate to health among adults and older adults. Evidence suggests that the time-use composition (mixture) of healthy movement behaviours across the full 24-hour day is associated with a range of health outcomes, including all-cause mortality, adiposity, cardiometabolic biomarkers and mental health in adults. Consistent with this integrated movement behaviour paradigm, Canada recently developed and released the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults (18-64 years and 65 years or older) (24hrMG) in October 2020.

Full article PDF version
Related articles

Health associations with meeting the Canadian 24-hour movement guidelines for adults: Results from the Canadian Health Measures Survey

  • RC, Garriguet D, Janssen I, et al. Physical activity of Canadian children and youth: accelerometer results from the 2007 to 2009 Canadian Health Measures Survey. Health Reports 2011; 22(1): 15-23.
  • Colley RC, Connor Gorber S, Tremblay MS. Quality control and data reduction procedures for accelerometry-derived measures of physical activity. Health Reports 2010; 21(1): 63-9.
  • Patry-Parisien J, Shields M, Bryan S. Comparison of waist circumference using the World Health Organization and National Institutes of Health protocols. Health Reports 2012; 23(3): 53-60.
  • Chaput JP, Wong SL, Michaud I. Duration and quality of sleep among Canadians aged 18 to 79. Health Reports 2017; 28(9): 28-33.
  • Colley RC, Michaud I, Garriguet D. Reallocating time between sleep, sedentary and active behaviours: associations with obesity and health in Canadian adults. Health Reports 2018; 29(4): 3-13.
Date modified: