Grant: CIHR New Investigator

There is little doubt that the foundation of adult health begins in childhood. Opportunities to enhance child health through preventive interventions hold the promise of improving the health of Canada's children and the adults they become. Common nutritional problems including vitamin D deficiency, iron deficiency, and obesity could present such an opportunity. Over the past three years at the Applied Health Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael's Hospital, I have laid the foundation of a program of research aimed at meeting the challenge of preventing these common nutritional problems in the early years. To accomplish this, I have with my colleagues, developed the only Canadian primary healthcare research platform for children called TARGet Kids! (The Applied Research Group for Kids). Through TARGet Kids!, new strategies to involve young children in health research have been developed and have been combined with state of the art research methods and the engagement of the doctors who care for these children. Over the next five years, I will scale up TARGet Kids! by following participating children through time, by linking their data to other powerful databases and by expanding TARGet Kids! across Canada. Further, I will use this cutting edge platform to develop and test preventive interventions targeting vitamin D deficiency, iron deficiency and childhood obesity. Ultimately, through the development and testing of preventive interventions that doctors can use for common nutritional problems in the early years, this program will redefine preventive child health in Canada and improve the health of Canadian children and the adults that they become.