Development of an on-line interactive map to display environmental health assessments of Canadian communities: knowledge-translation to support collaborations for health

ABSTRACT

Contextual determinants of health in Canada include community demographics, tobacco, food, and alcohol. We developed an on-line and highly accessible interactive map containing information from over 2000 communities across Canada.

KEYWORDS:

• Online map
• built environment
• neighbourhood

This article is related to:

Environmental health assessment of communities across Canada: contextual factors study of the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC), Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSF-Canada), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) through the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE). Anand is supported by a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Ethnicity and Cardiovascular Disease and Heart and Stroke Foundation Chair in Population Health. Tu was supported by a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research and an Eaton Scholar award. Lear is supported by a Pfizer/Heart and Stroke Foundation and a Chair in Cardiovascular Prevention Research at St. Paul’s Hospital. Dr Booth is supported by the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St Michael’s Hospital and a Department of Medicine Merit Award at the University of Toronto.

Notes on contributors

R. J. de Souza

Russell de Souza is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University. He is a registered dietitian, and his research focuses on dietary patterns, health, and how the food environment shapes food choice and risk of cardiovascular disease.

R. Arora

Rishi Arora is an undergraduate research student in the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University.

L. Gauvin

Lise Gauvin is a principal scientist at Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal. Her work focuses on how different neighbourhood characteristics can influence people’s lifestyle choices, what neighbourhood features can become the target of public health interventions, and on how these interventions can successfully shape urban residential areas.

N. C. Williams

Natalie Williams is a data manager working with the Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds.

S. A. Lear

Scott Lear is a Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and the inaugural Pfizer/Heart and Stroke Foundation Chair in Cardiovascular Prevention.

A. P. Oliveira

A. P. Oliveira does not wish to have his biography included.

D. Desai

Dipika Desai is a senior project manager with the Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds.

D. J. Corsi

Danel Corsi works with the OMNI Research Group at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

S. V. Subramanian

SV Subramanian is a Professor of Population Health and Geography at Harvard University, and Director of a University-wide Initiative on Applied Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences.

G. L. Booth

Gillian Booth is an Endocrinologist and Scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toornto. She leads the the “Healthy Cities, Healthier Lives” Research Program.

F. Razak

Fahad Razak an Internist and Scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toornto. His research is focused on health interventions in low-income settings, and big data development and analytics.

J. R. Brook

Jeff Brook is the Principal Investigator and Scientific Director of the Canadian urban environmental health research consortium (CANUE). He has 25 years of experience as an Environment Canada scientist working at the science-policy interface.

J. V. Tu

Jack Tu was a senior scientist with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Torotno. He was an internationally recognized health services researcher, who published over 350 peer-reviewed journal articles.

S. S. Anand

Sonia S Anand is a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at McMaster University and a senior scientist at the Population Health Research Institute. Her research focuses on understanding the environmental and genetic causes of cardiovascular risk factors among women, and diverse ethnic groups, and clinical-population health interventions.