Aboriginal women and obesity in Canada

This review exploring the body of literature examining obesity issues among Aboriginal women contains four main sections: the parameters of the review and methodological challenges; an overview of the available research respecting sex and gender and obesity-related health risks; predominant research areas and approaches; and considerations for engaging in an economic cost-benefit analysis. [...] The first section defines terms, describes the search strategy and the parameters of the literature reviewed, and provides some Canadian context regarding obesity and First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women. [...] The second section explores sex-disaggregated obesity prevalence rates as well as the implications of these rates for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit 1. The “Canadian population” refers to all Canadians represented in the sample for the purposes of the CCHS survey. [...] This section provides some clarification as to the usage of these terms, both in the literature and in this review, as well as some of the methodological challenges relevant to evaluating this body of research. [...] The World Health Organization (WHO) places the cutoff for obesity at a BMI of 30 or over and the range for overweight at a BMI of 25 to less than 30, which is the standard most often used in the research.