How can we promote health and decrease the rate of chronic disease in your community?

Chronic disease prevention is an important focus of health promotion efforts and healthy public policy.  Our work in this area focuses on understanding the factors that facilitate chronic disease prevention and on the development and evaluation of healthy public policy.

Chronic Disease Prevention Survey

Chronic Disease Prevention Survey

The Chronic Disease Prevention Survey measures the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of policy influencers (decision makers in government, schools, media, and other large organizations) and the [...]

Benchmarking Food Environments

Benchmarking Food Environments

Good food and nutrition are essential to promoting the health of children and youth. Healthy eating promotes child growth and development, learning and even the prevention of diet-related chronic [...]

POWER UP!

POWER UP!

Policy Opportunity Windows – Engaging Research Uptake in Practice (POWER UP!) was a team of researchers, practitioners, and policy makers who worked together to share knowledge and evidence [...]

Community Health and the Built Environment

Community Health and the Built Environment

To better understand how a community environment helps or hinders people’s healthy choices, we worked in collaboration with four communities in Alberta: Bonnyville North Central [...]

Collaborative Projects and Publications

Collaborative Projects (Selected)

Collaborative Publications (Selected)

  • Curtin, K.D., Thomson, M., & Nykiforuk, C.I.J. (2021). Who or what is to blame? Examining sociodemographic relationships to beliefs about causes, control, and responsibility for cancer and chronic disease prevention in Alberta, Canada. BMC Public Health, 21(1):1-12. Epub 2021 June 2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11065-4
    https://rdcu.be/clPb0
  • Brown, J.A., Ferdinands, A.R., Prowse, R., Reynard, D., Raine, K.D., & Nykiforuk, C.I.J. (2021). Seeing the food swamp for the weeds: moving beyond retail food mix in evaluating young people’s food environments. SS&M – Population Health, 14:100803. E-pub 2021 April 26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100803 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827321000781
  • Nejatinamini, S., Godley, J., Minaker, L.M., Sajobi, T.T., McCormack, G.R., Cooke, M.J., Nykiforuk, C.I.J., de Koning, L., & Olstad, D.L. (2021). Quantifying the contributions of modifiable risk factors to socioeconomic inequities in cancer morbidity and mortality: a population-based cohort study. International Journal of Epidemiology, Epub 2021 April 12:1-14. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab067
  • Atkary, M.L., Caron-Roy, S., Sajobi, T., O’Hara, H., Leblanc, P., Dunn, S., McCormack, G., Timmins, D., Ball, K., Downs, S., Minaker, L.M.,Nykiforuk, C.I.J., Godley, J., Milaney, K., Lashewicz, B., Fournier, B., Elliott, C., Raine, K.R., Prowse, R., Olstad, D.L. (2020). Impact of a farmers’ market nutrition coupon program on diet quality and psychosocial well-being among low-income adults: protocol for a randomized control trial and a longitudinal qualitative investigation. BMJ Open, 10:e035143. doi: 1136/bmjopen-2019-035143 https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/5/e035143.full
  • Belon, A.P., Serrano-Lomelin, J., Nykiforuk, C.I.J., Hicks, A., Crawford, S., Bakal, J., Ospina, M.B. (2020). Health gradients in emergency visits and hospitalizations for pediatric respiratory diseases: a population-based retrospective cohort study. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 34(2): 150-160. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ppe.12639
  • Sopcak, N., Aguilar, C.,Nykiforuk, C.I.J., O’Brien, M.A., Aubrey-Bassler, K., Cullen, R.M., Heatherington, M., Grunfeld, E., Manca, D.P. (2017). Patients’ perspectives on BETTER prevention and screening: qualitative findings from Newfoundland & Labrador. British Journal for General Practice (BJGP) Open. BJBP-2017-0061. Epub 2017 Aug 8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpopen17X101037
  • Olstad, D.L., Ancilotto, R., Teychenne, M., Minaker, L.M., Taber, D.R., Raine, K.D., Nykiforuk, C.I., Ball, K. (2017). Can targeted policies reduce obesity in socioeconomically disadvantaged populations? A systematic review. Obesity Reviews, 18(7): 791-807. Epub 2017 April 23. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12546
  • Sopcak, N., Aguilar, C., O’Brien, M.A.,Nykiforuk, C., Aubrey-Bassler, K., Cullen, R., Grunfeld, E., Manca, D.P. (2016). Implementation of the BETTER 2 program: a qualitative study exploring barriers and facilitators of a novel way to improve chronic disease prevention and screening in primary care. Implementation Science, 11:158. Epub 2016 Dec. DOI: 10.1186/s13012-016-0525-0
  • Nieuwendyk, L.M., Belon, A.P., Vallianatos, H., Raine, K.D., Schopflocher, D., Spence, J.C., Plotnikoff, R.C., Nykiforuk, C.I. (2016). How perceptions of community environment influence health behaviours: using the Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity framework as a mechanism for exploration. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada: Research, Policy and Practice, 36(9): 175-184. Epub 2016 Sep 22. DOI: 24095/hpcdp.36.9.01
  • Lytvyak, E., Olstad, D.L., Schopflocher, D.P., Plotnikoff, R.C., Storey, K.E., Nykiforuk, C.I.J., Raine, K.D. (2016). Impact of a 3-year multi-centre community-based intervention on risk factors for chronic disease and obesity among free-living adults: the Healthy Alberta Communities study. BMC Public Health, 16(1): 344. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3021-1
  • Hammal, F., Wild, T.C., Nykiforuk, C., Abdullahi, K., Mussie, D., Finegan, B. (2016). Waterpipe (hookah) smoking among youth and women in Canada is new not traditional. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 18(5): 757-762. Epub 2015 Jul 17. https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntv152
  • Manca, D.P., Campbell-Scherer, D., Aubrey-Bassler, K., Kandola, K., Aguilar, C., Baxter, J., Meaney, C., Salvalaggio, G., Carroll, J.C., Faria, V.,Nykiforuk, C., Grunfeld, E. (2015). Developing clinical decision tools to implement chronic disease prevention and screening in primary care: the BETTER 2 program (building on existing tools to improve chronic disease prevention and screening in primary care). ImplementationScience, 10(1):107. DOI:1186/s13012-015-0299-9. PMID: 26238338
  • Minaker, L.M., Raine, K.D., Wild, T.C., Nykiforuk, C., Thompson, M.E., Frank, L.D. (2014). Construct validation of 4 food-environment assessment methods: adapting a multitrait-multimethod matrix approach for environmental measures. American Journal of Epidemiology, 179(4): 519-528. Epub 2013 Nov 20. DOI: 1093/aje/kwt272
  • Raine, K.D., Sosa Hernandez, C., Nykiforuk, C.I.J., Reed, S., Montemurro, G., Lytvyak, E., MacLellan-Wright, M-F. (2014). Measuring the progress of capacity building in the Alberta Policy Coalition for Cancer Prevention. Health Promotion Practice, 15(4): 496-505. Epub 2013 Dec 13. DOI: 1177/1524839913511627 PMID: 24334541
  • Montemurro, G., Raine, K., Nykiforuk, C.I.J., Mayan, M. (2014). Exploring the process of capacity-building among community-based health promotion workers in Alberta, Canada. Health Promotion International, 29(3): 463-73. Epub 2013 Feb 27. DOI: 1093/heapro/dat008 PMID: 23445941