Grant: Team Grant: Pathways Implementation Research Team - Component 2 - LOI

This program of intervention research is about improving child health and equity in northern Canada. It addresses the obesity/diabetes (primary) and oral health (secondary) exemplars. The problems are clear: on average, children in the north have much poorer nutritional and oral health status than their southern counterparts. This Pathways Implementation Research Team acknowledges these health inequities and focuses on the science of solutions. The proposal is put forward by a child health researcher at Queen's University, three territorial government-based nutritionists, collaborators at the Arctic Institute for Community-Based Research and the Wellness Centre of Arviat, NU. We will build on the strengths of two long-standing initiatives in "Drop the Pop" and the international WHO-PHAC sponsored "Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study", with two decades of history in the north. Three complimentary mixed-methods research projects will be undertaken: (1) Description of the current food and beverage consumption patterns and physical activity levels of northern children; (2) Quantitative analysis of the dietary impacts of Drop the Pop; and (3) Qualitative participatory study with youth examining the impacts of Drop the Pop on individual health behaviours, family food practices and oral health. The proposed will result in a large number of opportunities for cross-disciplinary training, youth and community engagement and leadership development. We believe due to the extent and nature of the Team collaborations, the results will be well placed to concretely inform population health intervention scholarship and northern practice.