Program: Trainee
Structural insight into the FKBP12-binding domain in ryanodine receptors
Investigating the mechanisms that reduce the metabolic cost of gait in persons with stroke using a novel bipedal exoskeleton
Linking risk assessment, risk management, and treatment: Enhancing the successful community integration of individuals released from the forensic mental health system
Cardiac function after SCI: From bench to bedside
Does neighbourhood matter for children’s and youths’ physical activity and active transport?
The WHO ranked physical inactivity as the fourth most important non-communicable disease in the world. It is of grave concern that fewer than 1 in 10 young Canadians are meeting health-related activity guidelines. The built environment (city design, transport network) may facilitate childrenâs and youthsâ physical activity, but intervention studies are needed to better inform public health policy and urban planning. I have the rare opportunity to address this gap in knowledge by capitalizing on our teamâs close partnership with the City of Vancouver to assess if planned adaptations along the Comox-Helmcken Greenway (downtown) will positively influence childrenâs and youthsâ physical activity.
Hypothesis: Children and youth attending schools in proximity to the Greenway will demonstrate a significant increase (or attenuation of age-related decline) in objectively measured physical activity (with a focus on active transport) compared with counterparts who reside elsewhere.
Specific objectives are to:
- Assess whether targeted changes to the built environment along the Greenway positively influence child and youth physical activity overall.
- Assess its impact on active transport.
- Explore how children, youth and their parents perceive and move within their neighbourhood, how closely perceptions are mirrored in objective assessments of the BE, and how barriers and facilitators to outdoor activity, active transport to school and other destinations conspire with intrapersonal and socio-cultural factors to influence behaviour.
For this natural experiment, I will utilize a non-equivalent control group design (intervention-vs. matched comparison schools). Building upon my successful pilot (Oct. â12), all measurements will be school- and class-based as preferred and approved by the Vancouver School Board (July 2012). Baseline assessments will be conducted in summer â13, and post-intervention assessments in summer â14 (depending on Cityâs timelines). I will use a variety of state-of-the art measurement and analyses tools, including: accelerometry and global positioning systems (when and where are children and youth active), Geographic Information Systems (ArcGIS, Esri; objective environment assessments), and a host of complimentary questionnaire data, including participant and parentsâ perceptions, as well as their own physical activity.
This project has the potential to influence urban planning toward mobility-friendly design for young people.
Structural and biochemical studies of mammalian polysialyltransferases in complex with their respective acceptor proteins NCAM and SynCAM
National Transgender and Gender Variant School-age Youth Survey: Stigma, resilience, and mental health
While limited research has documented the mental health status of transgender and gender variant youth, the available evidence suggests this is an extremely vulnerable group.
This project will document the mental health issues and related risk exposures of transgender and gender variant youth in Canada. It will also explorehow their home, school, and community environments contribute to mental health.
The National Canadian Trans Youth Survey will sample transgender and gender variant youth nationwide, recruited through service providers and social networks. Survey questions will assess a broad range of physical and mental health outcomes and related behaviours, primarily drawn from existing national, provincial, and international school-based adolescent health surveys. This will allow direct comparison of trans and gender-variant youths’ health and well-being to the rest of the population. Dr. Veale will lead the mental health component of the project. This will involve exploring the relationship between young people’s social environments and mental health, including school experiences, family supports, and exposure to discrimination or violence. With a focus on specific mental health issues such as emotional distress, self-harm, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, this research will identify both health inequities for trans and gender variant young people, as well as environments and experiences that contribute to mental health risk or resilience.
Analysis of all of these factors will identify potential intervention points for school and community strategies to improve the mental health and well-being of transgender and gender variant youth. The results will be taken back to the surveyed youth themselves, as well as academic audiences, education and public health stakeholders through a variety of knowledge-to-action strategies, and serves as the critical first step in developing policies and programs to promote the mental health of transgender youth.
Behavioural and neurophysiological investigations on amphetamine-induced perturbations in the prefrontal-amygdala-striatal circuitry
A retrospective cohort study of maternal and newborn outcomes and maternity care provider mix in rural British Columbia
Over 40,000 babies are born each year in BC; approximately 15,000 to mothers who live outside the core urban areas of the province. A wave of obstetric service closures over the past ten years has resulted in increasing numbers of pregnant women having to travel long distances to access maternity services or having to relocate to a referral centre in their third trimester. Recent research from BC shows that women who live in communities without local maternity services experience more stress and anxiety during pregnancy due to the financial and emotional hardship incurred by leaving their communities to access services. Babies of women from BC who live further away from services are also more likely to experience negative outcomes, such as stillbirth or neonatal death.
The goal of of this study is to determine how the composition of rural maternity services relates to maternal and newborn outcomes, taking into consideration the characteristics and risk profile of childbearing women.
Using data from British Columbia Perinatal Services, and detailed information about the number and mix of maternity care providers (family physicians, obstetricians, midwives etc.) in each rural hospital catchment, Dr. Stoll will study the outcomes of mothers and babies over a ten-year period (2000 – 2010). In addition, she will examine whether the proportion of women who give birth in their home community as opposed to a referral hospital, changes with different maternity care provider compositions. She will describe how the number and mix of maternity care providers in rural communities relate to population outcomes using quantitative analysis.
Findings from this study will contribute to formulating optimal models of maternity care delivery for rural communities in BC and across Canada.