Health Reports
A Canadian peer-reviewed journal of population health and health services research
March 2026
Assessing obesity beyond body mass index: Integrating physiological and functional indicators of impairment in national health surveillance
Obesity is a persistent public health issue in Canada. In population health surveillance, body mass index (BMI) is the most commonly used metric to estimate the prevalence of obesity. However, it is acknowledged that BMI-based definitions of obesity can misrepresent both body fat and health risks, producing an incomplete picture of obesity’s impact on health. Furthermore, the impact of obesity is often evaluated as a risk factor for other diseases, rather than as a direct contributor to chronic, systemic ill health.
Full article PDF versionValidating the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale for the positive mental health surveillance of adults in Canada
Effective public health surveillance of population mental health requires the regular collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of mental health data using validated measures to inform action. In addition to mental ill-health, an essential feature in the measurement of population mental health is mental well-being or positive mental health (PMH). PMH is a multifaceted construct that involves positive feelings (i.e., hedonia or emotional well-being) and positive functioning (i.e., eudaimonia or psychological and social well-being). Many PMH measures have been developed, with some intended to measure a specific aspect of PMH (e.g., life satisfaction, which is an aspect of hedonic well-being) and others designed as more comprehensive measures of overall PMH. Examples of the latter include the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) and its short form (SWEMWBS); “(S)WEMWBS” will be used when referring to both hereafter. The (S)WEMWBS have received a lot of attention in other countries, with the SWEMWBS even being recommended as an internationally harmonized measure of population PMH by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), primarily based on existing data collection practices. However, the (S)WEMWBS have been included in population health surveys in Canada only recently, and there are unanswered research questions surrounding their psychometric properties within Canada.
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