Publications

In May 2007, the McMaster Institute of Environment and Health hosted the Environment, Health and Social Equity Workshop, with participants from across Canada representing academic institutions, NGOs, government agencies, and funding agencies. The workshop was supported by CIHR, and developed by Jeff Masuda, a former Post-Doctoral Fellow with MIEH. A partial outcome of this workshop appears in the Winter 2008 Canadian Geographer.

Jeffrey R. Masuda, Tara Zupancic, Blake Poland and Donald C. Cole. 2008. Environmental health and vulnerable populations in Canada: mapping an integrated equity-focused research agenda. The Canadian Geographer, 52(4): 427-450.

Restaurant Inspection Frequency and Food Safety Compliance

MIEH researchers and staff from City of Hamilton, Public Health Services collaborated on the article

Newbold KB, McKeary M, Hart RG, and Hall R. 2008. Restaurant Inspection Frequency and Food Safety Compliance. Journal of Environmental Health, 71(4): 56-61.

Funeral homes and food safety: A potentially hazardous situation?

MIEH researchers and staff from City of Hamilton, Public Health Services collaborated on the article

Erchov N, Francis S, Hart RG, Slyepchenko T, McKeary M and Newbold KB. 2008. Funeral homes and food safety: A potentially hazardous situation? Environmental Health Review, 52 (1): 9-11.

MIEH Research Associate, Allison Williams's New Book

Health in Rural Canada
edited Judith C. Kulig and Allison M. Williams
www.ubcpress.ca

Health research in Canada has mostly focused on urban areas, often overlooking the unique issues faced by Canadians living in rural and remote areas. This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the state of rural health and health care in Canada, from coast to coast and in northern communities.

The contributors bring insights and methodologies from nursing, social work, geography, epidemiology, and sociology and from community-based research to a full spectrum of topics: health literacy, rural health care delivery and training, Aboriginal health, web-based services and their application, rural palliative care, and rural health research and policy. Combined with a general overview of how rural services are structured and funded within the Canadian health care system, these diverse explorations of health and place highlight three key themes: rural places matter to health, rural places are unique, and rural places are dynamic.

Wide-ranging and multifaceted, Health in Rural Canada offers researchers and policy-makers, students and practitioners a valuable resource for understanding the special, ever-changing needs of rural communities.
MIEH Researchers Publish New Book

Sense of Place, Health and Quality of Life
edited by: John Eyles and Allison Williams

A significant body of theoretical and empirical studies describes 'sense of place' as an outcome of interconnected psychological, social and environmental processes in relation to physical place(s). Sense of place has been examined, particularly in human geography, in terms of both the character intrinsic to a place as a localized, bounded and material entity, and the sentiments of attachment/detachment that humans experience and express in relation to specific places.

Scholars in a wide range of disciplines are increasingly exploring the relationship between place and health, and recently, the field of public health has been encouraged to recognize sense of place as a potential contributing factor to well-being. It is evident that over the last few decades, sense of place has developed into a versatile construct.

This important book brings together work related to sense of place and health, broadly defined, from the perspective of a variety of fields and disciplines. It will give the reader an understanding of both the range of applications of this construct within approaches to human health as well as the breadth of research methodologies employed in its investigation.

Published by Ashgate (www.ashgate.com)

Vector Borne Diseases Annual Report, 2011
authors: City of Hamilton, McMaster Institute of Environment & Health
date: 2012
Media and Social Media in Public Health Messages: A Systematic Review
authors: Bruce Newbold, Sarah Campos
date: 2011
Chemicals of Concern in Ontario and the Great Lakes Basin -- Update 2011: Emerging Issues
authors: John Eyles, Bruce Newbold, Anita Toth, Tasnova Shah
date: 2011
Wind Energy Power Plants (Wind Farms): Review and Analysis
authors: Bruce Newbold, Marie McKeary
date: 2010
What You Should Know About... Bed Bugs
authors: Hamilton Public Health Services, McMaster Institute of Environment & Health
date: 2010
Mapping Vulnerability to Climate Change and Variability in Hamilton, Ontario Using Geographical Information Systems
authors: June Cheng, Bruce Newbold
date: 2010
Chemicals of Concern in Ontario: Emerging Contaminant Issues
authors: Bruce Newbold, John Eyles, Marie McKeary
submitted to: Health Canada
date: 2007
Chemicals of Concern in Ontario
authors: Bruce Newbold, John Eyles
submitted to: Health Canada
date: 2005
Results of a West Nile Virus Seroprevalence Survey, South Oakville, Ontario, 2003
authors: Susan J. Elliott, Mark Loeb, John Eyles, Daniel Harrington
submitted to: Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care
date: 2003

West Nile Virus Educational Outreach and Evaluation to Diverse Populations

By Susan Harding-Cruz (WNV Program Manager, Health Protection Division, PHS), and K.B. Newbold and M. McKeary (McMaster Institute of Environment and Health, MIEH).

According to the 2001 Canadian Census (Statistics Canada), the City of Hamilton is the fourth largest city in Ontario receiving newcomers; approximately one quarter (24.4%) of the residents are immigrants (born outside of Canada); and nearly 25% (24.6%) of the population are fluent in one or more languages excluding French and English.

However, there has been very little research (nationally, provincially or locally) focused on measuring the level of knowledge and awareness of West Nile Virus (WNV) within ethnically diverse populations. In order to develop accessible messaging, and to gauge awareness of Hamilton's program by age or ethnically diverse groups, the Hamilton WNV Program of Public Health Services (PHS) organized a unique initiative over the spring and summer of 2007.

PHS, in collaboration with MIEH staff, chose to target both age and ethnically diverse organizations within Hamilton and offer them an educational presentation focused on the Hamilton WNV Program and its activities, as well as information on personal protective behaviours, which individuals may practice to reduce the risk of WNV. The organizations that accepted our invitation composed the 'make up' of the audience. Although not specifically enumerated by PHS (as the goal was to have participants from the organization take part as a whole), participants were known to be a mix of clients, ex-clients, students, volunteers, staff and members, (some participants were a combination-such as a past client of an organization becoming a staff member). The team hoped the information presented would be further disseminated 'outside' of the original audience within both their private and professional circles. Groups were initially sent an invitation letter and then received a follow up phone call. During the pre-contact, the organizations did not request any other languages beside English and the PHI team were assured this would not be an issue.

The PHS team was composed of a Program Manager, a public health inspector (PHI) who was a member of the WNV team, and the MIEH research facilitator, who is contracted to provide research support to the Environmental Health Programs within the Health Protection Division. Community groups/individuals would benefit from the educational PowerPoint presentation developed by the team and presented by the PHI and Program Manager, alternatively. The role of the MIEH researcher was to distribute a program evaluation survey during the sessions, and later collate and analyze the results.

The data would achieve two goals: 1) to evaluate the efficacy of the current messaging and 2) measure the level of knowledge/awareness of both WNV and the Hamilton Program activities (see introduction).

There were the usual challenges/lessons regarding scheduling with busy organizations, keeping the information accessible and simple while preserving the complexity of the issue. The PHS team addressed these challenges by being 'flexible' to the organizations' time and mailing the information (ESL teachers) when a 'live' presentation would be onerous to the organization. The PHS team also traveled to the organization locations. The familiarity of the MIEH researcher with the local diversity 'social map' and experience in composing 'accessible' presentations for adults, combined with the public health expertise of the other team members allowed us to accomplish our goal.

Overall, the Diversity Education/Evaluation Initiative was a resounding success in its inaugural year. Not only did the presentation project involve fifty-seven (57) participants, representing twenty (20) countries and six (6) continents, but also we distributed prevention information to sixty-five (65) ESL/LINC teachers who were then able to educate hundreds of students enrolled in their programs. We also gathered valuable feedback, which was to help inform the Program Manager for future program planning and allocation of resources. Unfortunately, in 2008 and 2009 the focus of the provincial government for West Nile Virus is on surveillance and control activities and not education and outreach.

Listed below are samples of some of the findings of the pilot project. This project was unmatched in other jurisdictions, both from the local and provincial public health levels in evaluating messaging with diverse populations.

Diverse Participants included both genders 79% Female and 21% Male.
Diverse Participants included all age categories from 16 through 70 with a particular focus on 20 through 60.
Diverse Participants included individuals who represented the following countries: Bosnia, Cambodia, Canada, China, Egypt, England, Guyana, Indonesia, Iran, Lithuania, Mexico, Middle East, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Scotland, Somali, Sri Lanka, United States and Vietnam.
86% of the respondents were aware of WNV.
63% of the respondents were aware of the role of the mosquito in transmitting the virus, thus acknowledging WNV as a vector borne disease.
The majority of participants (82%) were aware of the role of PHS AND were able to correctly identify the different components of the WNV Program including education/outreach, protection and surveillance activities.