Grant: Operating Grant: Programmatic Grants to tackle health and health equity

There is much interest in addressing the problem of health inequity. Health inequity is unfair and avoidable or remediable differences in health among social groups. Health equity suggests that all people can reach their full potential and should not be disadvantaged from attaining it due to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, social class, socioeconomic status, or other socially determined circumstance. Throughout Canada, policies and programs are developed to reduce health and social inequities. Our program of research will use the unique information-rich population-based Repository of administrative data housed at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, to study the impact of multiple programs and policies introduced over the past decade which could potentially impact health and social inequities of Manitoba's children. The Repository's 97 databases are anonymized, but linkable at the person-level and to family units and neighbourhoods, and contain information on health and social services and outcomes, including: births and deaths, use of physicians and hospitals, immunization programs, educational outcomes, early childhood intervention programs, and the use of child welfare, social assistance and public housing. Our focus is on childhood trajectories, including interventions that impact social and health outcomes from birth through to age 18. We will determine which programs, or combinations of programs, improved overall outcomes, but more importantly, which ones narrowed or widened the gap in inequity. Our research team includes partners from nine government ministries, non-governmental organizations, all the regional health authorities and the Healthy Child Manitoba initiative. By working with these decision makers throughout the research process we will ensure that we ask relevant questions, interpret the data in the correct context and can assist in having the research findings translate into action, through evidence-informed policies and programs.