Applied Research Collaborations for Health (ARCH) is the research group for Dr. Sara Kirk. Sara Kirk holds a Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research within the School of Health and Human Performance at Dalhousie University and a cross-appointment with the IWK Health Centre.

ARCH uses a social-ecological approach to understand lifestyle factors influencing health status and health services utilization, particularly in relation to excessive weight gain. In particular, ARCH is looking at how obesity is managed within the health setting, as well as in understanding the contribution of the "obesogenic" environment to population weight status.

The New York Times ran a very interesting piece this week that explored the use of mathematics to understand the obesity epidemic. The article involves an interview with Carson C. Chow, a mathematician with the US National Institutes for Health. Using applied mathematics, he and his colleagues have concluded that the obesity epidemic is a result of the overproduction of food. Click here to read more. Not something many people want to hear but important none-the-less.

Research at Dalhousie University is helping us to understand how students’ health has changed over the past eight years.The Children’s Lifestyle and School-performance Study (CLASS) is a province-wide research project that studies the relationships between nutrition, physical activity, mental wellbeing, school performance and children’s overall health in Nova Scotia. CLASS I was completed in 2003 with over 5000 Grade 5 students and their parents/guardians in 282 schools across the province. Since 2003 there have been many changes in Nova Scotia schools through increased investment in health promotion policies and initiatives. CLASS II is helping to understand how these changes have influenced children’s health and school performance by collecting similar information from Grade 5 students in 2011.

The CLASS II team visited 272 schools in 2011. Parents/guardians provided consent for their children to take part and completed a survey about aspects of the home environment of relevance to healthy eating and active living. Students completed two short surveys about the foods they eat and activities they do, and had their growth and development measured in private. In partnership with the Physical and Health Education Canada National Conference, over 80 representatives from the Provincial Government, School Boards, District Health Authorities, schools and communities came together on Thursday May 10th 2012 to learn more from the preliminary CLASS II results. The event was also attended by the media, with both CBC and CTV featuring the research on their evening news shows. Click here to watch the CBC video. Click here to watch the CTV video.  Click here to read more about the CLASS studies.

Balancing the Scales is a one-day, informative and interactive session on obesity management in the Nova Scotia health care system to be held on Friday, June 8 2012, at the Future Inns Halifax Hotel & Conference Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia. This event will share the results of a recently completed study on obesity management in the Nova Scotia health care system. Bringing together health care providers (physicians, nurses, dietitians and other allied health professionals) and individuals living with obesity in a facilitated dialogue, the day will also explore challenges and solutions to better support individuals living with obesity as they navigate the health system. Click here for more information.

ARCH Director, Dr Sara Kirk, was featured on Radio Canada International’s “The Link‘ program today, discussing a recently published research study. The study involved a national survey of Canadians and their weight management practices, finding that surprisingly few overweight or obese patients reported receiving advice about weight management from physicians. Specifically,  of 2004 respondents, 33% were classified as overweight and 20% as obese. In the 12 months before the survey, 48% of overweight and obese respondents reported asking their physician about weight loss, while 30% reported that their physician advised them to lose weight without them specifically asking. These findings have implications for the way weight issues are managed within the health system as well as more broadly for chronic disease management.

A new review has been published in the International Journal of Obesity, led by ARCH team members Dr Sara Kirk and Tarra Penney. The objectives of the review were to determine most effective and most promising practices for weight management in adults, using methodology from the Canadian Best Practice Initiative, and to present this information according to its quality. This paper was written with the busy health professional in mind, who typically does not have time to read through the huge amounts of literature on weight management. By synthesising evidence from systematic reviews and meta-analyses, supplemented with primary studies, this review identified three intervention themes or areas of context, in
which more specific most effective and/or promising practice recommendations could be nested. These intervention themes were (1) targeted multi-component interventions for weight management, (2) dietary manipulation strategies and (3) delivery of weight management interventions, including health professional roles and method of delivery. Each theme then has recommendations. This review highlights the value of multi-component interventions that are delivered over the longer term, and reinforces the role of health care professionals. The findings will help to inform evidence-based practice for health care practitioners involved in obesity management and prevention. To view the abstract, click here.

Deadline March 5, 2012

The Canadian Obesity Network-Réseau canadien en obésité (CON-RCO) in partnership with Merck Frosst/CIHR Research Chair in Obesity, Université Laval and the University of Alberta will convene the 3rd Canadian Obesity Student Meeting on June 20-23, 2012 in Edmonton, Alberta

The conference will bring together 300 students and new professionals and obesity stakeholders representing academia, industry, government and non-profit organizations.

Prizes will be awarded for the best presentations.

Abstract submission deadline: March 5, 2012

For more information on the COSM 2012 as well as details regarding abstract submission, please see: http://www.obesitynetwork.ca/page.aspx?page=2867&app=182&cat1=457&tp=12&lk=no&menu=37

With the Halifax Skating Oval now open, the debate over corporate sponsorship continues. ARCH Director Dr Sara Kirk co-authored an opinion piece that has been published in the Chronicle Herald. This article calls for a debate on the ethics of corporate sponsorship in our communities and public spaces, particularly when the sponsorship involves products that have been linked with negative health outcomes. Click here to read the full story.

ARCH is a supporter of an exciting opportunity for graduate students looking to publish.

Health Science Inquiry is a Canada-wide science journal for graduate students based at the University of Toronto.  To date, they have published two issues and have held successful partnerships with both The Lancet Infectious Diseases (TLID) and the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).  The first issue on the H1N1 pandemic saw one of our submissions published in an August 2010 issue of TLID, while the second issue on cancer resulted in the publication of a submission in an October 2011 issue of the CMAJ.

For the next issue, the theme will be obesity and diabetes and is currently accepting submissions to be published in June 2012.  HSI has partnered with the International Journal of Obesity this year, and full details of this partnership and submission instructions can be found online at http://hsinquiry.sa.utoronto.ca/.

Students are encouraged to e-mail healthscienceinquiry@gmail.com or Tarra Penney (tpenney@dal.ca) at ARCH, who is participating as a Senior Editor,  if they have any questions.  We hope you are able to make a contribution to this fantastic opportunity to explore the issue of obesity and diabetes with your fellow graduate students from across the country.

Just as Halifax Council have caved in and agreed to offer naming rights for the new Halifax Skating Oval to an alcohol company, a new report from the UK provides further damning evidence of the shortsightedness of this decision.  The report, published today in the British Cancer Journal found that more than 100,000 cancers – equivalent to one third of all those diagnosed in the UK each year – are being caused by smoking, unhealthy diets, alcohol and excess weight.  It is clear that the environment that we live in, including the relentless marketing of unhealthy food products and alcohol has a big role to play. With 45% percent of cancers being preventable by lifestyle changes, why on earth are we still allowing corporate sponsorship to invade our lives to such an extent?  Click here to read the  press release from leading UK cancer charity, Cancer Research UK.

A key news story over recent weeks in Halifax has been focused on a proposal to have alcohol sponsorship of the newly constructed Halifax Oval. Although Council voted against the proposal, the debate has continued and today Council meets again, with the topic likely to be revisited. In the interests of a balanced debate on the issue, here is the text of an email, sent by ARCH director Dr Sara Kirk to the Save the Oval campaign, outlining why alcohol sponsorship is a public health issue.

“I write in response to your post on savetheoval.ca regarding the issue of Molson sponsoring the Oval. In your post you urge people to contact their councillor to overturn the decision to reject Molson as a sponsor. You state that the argument put forward by critics does not make any sense, that “The City every year takes money from beer companies for Natal Day, Canada Day, (both have beer sales) and just last week, the tree lighting ceremony. The City owned Metro Centre is covered in beer and alcohol signs, and once again, alcohol sales happen in the presence of families. Let us also remember that we watch TV and sports programs which also feature alcohol ads, and still manage to provide our own children with responsible education on proper alcohol consumption”. This is missing the point. Just because it has always happened that way does not mean we should continue this approach. You see no reason for Molsons not to be corporate sponsors. Do you also see no conflict in having tobacco sponsorship on there too? Alcohol is a poison, a drug, but one that is socially acceptable and therein lies the problem. Because drinking is the cultural norm, it is not seen as a big issue, but that does not make it right to take sponsorship from a company that promotes drinking, just as we as a society agreed it was not right to take sponsorship from tobacco companies. The Oval will be a family facility, one that will be promoting a healthy behaviour, i.e. physical activity, which as you point out has massive benefits. Yet, in endorsing a company that promotes an unhealthy behaviour with a facility that promotes a healthy one, what kind of message are we sending to our children? There is overwhelming evidence from the World Cancer Research Fund Policy Report that our current food and activity environments need to change, as well as changing individual behaviour.

Just because alcohol is legal, it does not mean we should take sponsorship from alcohol companies for a facility that has health in mind. Nobody is suggesting prohibition, but we need to have a debate as a society about the morals of corporate sponsorship that has far greater benefits for the company than it does the population. Nova Scotia, like other Atlantic Canadian provinces, is among the unhealthiest in Canada and much of the burden of disease is associated with diseases that are directly linked to our behavioural choices. The unhealthy choice is the norm in our society, and healthy behaviour is the abnormal behaviour. Until we shift the culture to one where the healthier choice is the easier choice, we will continue to spend unsustainable amounts of money on a health care system that can no longer cope with the burden of chronic disease. Do we want to spend more on health care to combat alcohol-related disease, as well as tobacco-related disease and diseases caused by physical inactivity and unhealthy eating, for a paltry $400k that will perpetuate a culture that leads to unhealthy behaviours being the norm?

I may be a minority view in this debate but I applaud the Mayor, the council members and the Government for taking such leadership in this issue. Public health means serving the public good and sponsorship from Molson for the Oval does not serve the public good. If Molson are such good corporate sponsors, how about they provide money without their name plastered all over the Oval?”

For research evidence on the issue of sponsorship of unhealthy products see:

Sponsorship of Sport by Tobacco and Alcohol Companies: a Review of the Issues

Food and drink sponsorship of children’s sport: who pays?

Food company sponsors are kind, generous and cool”: (Mis)conceptions of junior sports players