Resumen
Background: In the last few years, Canada has been ac vely working on the implementa on of popula on health programs aimed to improving healthy lifestyle behaviors that have poten al to reduce the obesity epidemic. Obesity increases the risk of a number of main chronic diseases and is also associated with an increased risk of premature mortality. Our understanding of the underlying risk factors that contribute to obesity is increasing but there is s ll much more to be done. Increasingly research is showing that the prevalence of risk behaviors is not independent; most individuals have more than one risk behavior. A be er understanding of risk “clusters” or the co-occurrence of unhealthy behaviors will contribute greatly to targeted preven on, health promo on, and policy ac vi es. Purpose: The objec ve of this work is to understand and characterize the clustering of XX risk behaviors contribu ng to the obesity epidemic in Canada. Our hypothesis is that mul ple risk behavior s may occur in single individuals rather with randomly in different individuals and that the groups of people with different combina ons of risk can be differen ated using cluster analysis.