Excess weight represents a critical and common health problem in Canada. The last survey of a national representative sample based on measured anthropometrics has been conducted in 1992. According to surveys using measured data, the prevalence of obesity (body mass index, BMI = 30.0 kg m(-2)) between 1970 and 1992 for those aged 20-69 years increased from 8% to 13% in men and 13% to 15% in women. The proportion of Canadians displaying a BMI > or =25.0 kg m(-2) increased from 47% to 58% in men and from 34% to 41% in women in the same period. The most recent prevalence estimates from self-reported data in a national representative sample indicated that 15% of the adult population (> or =18 years) was affected by obesity, while an additional 33% was classified in the overweight category (BMI 25.0-29.9 kg m(-2)) in 2003. However, it has been suggested that self-reported height and weight underestimate the prevalence of obesity by approximately 10%. Canadian children, aboriginal populations, and immigrants are some of the vulnerable groups particularly at risk of excess weight or for which the increase in the recent decades has been greater than the national increase. The increases in overweight and obesity over the past 30 years among Canadians have been dramatic. It will be possible to precisely analyse the current situation and its evolution in the last 10 years when data based on measured height and weight will be released, that is, in 2005 and after.

Messages-clés Co n t ex t e : La prise de décision partagée suscite un intérêt prononcé. Le confort décisionnel s' a v è re utile afin d' é valuer de manière concomitante le processus décisionnel du patient et celui du médecin. Bu t : Le but de l' é t u d e consistait à tra d u i re en français et un médecin complétait plus d'une ECD-M, une pro c é d u re de ré-échantillonnage aléatoire a été utilisée. La fiabilité fut estimée à l'aide du coefficient alpha de Cronbach et de son intervalle de confiance à 95 % (IC 95 %). R é s u l t a t s : Tre n t e -q u a t re participants ont complété l'ECD-M après un total de 99 re n c o n t res cliniques. Utilisant tous les scores disponibles, la valeur moyenne du ÉCD-M fut 1,9 (ET = 0,5) sur une échelle allant de 1 (i.e. confortable) à 5 (i.e. inconfortable). Le coefficient alpha de Cronbach fut estimé à 0,82 (IC95 % = 0 , 8 1 à 0,83). Co n c l u s i o n : Les qualités psychométriques de l'ECD-M permettent son utilisation dans les contextes fra n c o p h o n e s d'enseignement médical afin de faciliter l' a p p rentissage de la prise de décision part a g é e .Mots clés Prise de décision part a g é e ; développement d'un outil de mesure ; psyc h o m é t r i e ; médecine ; résidents. Key learning points Co n t ex t : Sh a red decision-making is gaining in popularity. Decisional conflict is a useful c o n s t ruct to assess the quality of the decisional process of patients and physicians. Aim: The aim of this study was to tra n slate into French and assess the validity and reliability of an existing English scale that measures decisional conflict in physicians. Methods: Se venteen clinical teachers and 20 residents from a family practice teaching unit we re asked to fill their decisional conflict scale (ECD-M) after seeing a patient. They we re asked to contribute for a total of 5 patients each. Fa c e validity was assessed with comments from participants and construct va l i d i t y, with 4 additional items. Because of the nesting nature of the database (i.e. one physician contributed for more than one observation), a bootstrap pro c e d u re was used to produce 50 random samples. The reliability of the ECD-M was assessed with the Cronbach alpha and its 95% confidence interval (95%CI). Re s u l t s : T h i rty-four participants filled a total of 99 ECD-M.Using all data, the mean score of the ECD-M was 1,9 (SD = 0,5) on a scale of 1 (i.e. comfortable) to 5 (i.e. uncomfortable) Key words Sh a red decision-making ; psyc h o m e t r i c s ; measure m e n t ; physicians, re s i d e n t s .