SPPH Faculty awarded six CIHR Project Grants, one Bridge Award

School of Population and Public Health faculty have won six Canadian Health Institutes of Research (CIHR) Project Grants and one Bridge Award in the Fall 2016 competition.

Professor Louise Masse received two Project Grants, one for her project titled ‘A Good Start Matters: Do supportive childcare centre environments, policies and practices enhance physical activity?’, the findings of which will inform future policies and enhance understanding of how policy action supported by communication and capacity-building strategies influences the environment of childcare centres, the researchers said.

The second Grant project is titled ‘Impact of transitioning to secondary schools on health behaviours associated with obesity and academic related outcomes: A socio-ecological perspective’ and aims to examine factors that influence adolescents’ physical activity, sedentary time and dietary habits as they transition from elementary to secondary school.

Professor Mieke Koehoorn received a Project Grant for her project titled ‘Immigration and work disability in the Canadian context’, which aims to describe differences in work disability experiences, along the continuum from injury to rehabilitation to return-to-work and to longer term health outcomes, among immigrant workers compared to Canadian-born workers.

Professor Jean Shoveller received a Project Grant for her project titled ‘Addiction treatment trajectories among street-involved young people who use opioids: Responding to a public health emergency in Vancouver’, which will describe street-involved youth’s addiction treatment trajectories and outcomes in the context of Vancouver’s expanding efforts to address the overdose crisis, with the goal of creating new knowledge that will directly inform ongoing efforts to deliver innovative youth addiction treatment services in Vancouver.

Professors Patricia Spittal and Martin Schechter received a Project Grant for their project titled ‘Designing targeted interventions to address HIV vulnerabilities and improve clinical outcomes among conflict affected adolescent girls and young women under 25 in Northern Uganda’, which will estimate the prevalence/incidence of HIV and syphilis and identify risk factors among conflict-affected young women in three districts in Northern Uganda and investigate associations between posttraumatic stress, resilience, and depression with HIV incidence among this population, the researchers said.

Professor Aslam Anis received a Project Grant for his project titled ‘The pricing of generic drugs and its impact on market structure, competitiveness and security of supply’, which the researchers said would be the first to evaluate the performance of new Canadian generic drug pricing policies. The findings would be used to guide policy-making to ensure fair pricing and reduced risk of generic drug shortages in Canada, they said.

Professor K.S. Joseph received a Bridge Award for his project titled ‘Adapting the Intergrowth-21st Project newborn standard for Canada’, which aims to identify newborn birth weight-for-gestational age values (and related indices) that will distinguish babies at low versus high risk for severe illness or death.

Clinical Associate Professor Naveed Janjua was part of a BC Centre for Disease Control team that won a Project Grant for the project ‘From Patient to Policy: Using data to drive TB elimination in Canada’s foreign born population.’

According to the CIHR, the Fall 2016 competition approved 475 research grants, plus 121 bridge grants, for a total investment of approximately $359 million.

Congratulations to our faculty grant winners, and all other faculty involved!

Click here to read more faculty recognition

Click here to return to the News main page