Researchers in the Faculty of Health have have been making strides toward a healthier world ever since 1967, when our first programs began. Here is a snapshot of some areas of impact over the decades:
1960s
Realizing there was potential in studying the science of human movement, the University of Waterloo contributed to the establishment of an entirely new interdisciplinary field of study when it launched the world’s first department of Kinesiology in 1967. Today, this field is commonplace among most Canadian universities.
That same year, the Ontario government approached UWaterloo and the University of Ottawa to request a degree program in recreation as a way of establishing leadership to encourage physical fitness among the population. The Department of Recreation was founded in 1968, with an emphasis on combining knowledge of people, environment and management into one area. To this day, the department continues to create leaders in various fields, including sport, management and therapeutic recreation.
1970s
In 1974, the federal government released the Lalonde Report on the health of Canadians, which suggested that the promotion of health and wellness needs to go hand in hand with medical care and intervention. The Faculty recognized the need for a new kind of health research and responded by forming another new department in 1978: Health Studies, which has evolved into the current School of Public Health Sciences. The idea prevails that it is preferable to prevent than to treat.
1980s
The smoking-cessation work that Allan Best and his students were doing at Waterloo in the early 1980s eventually led to many of the strategies we employ today, including cigarette-package warning labels, policies against smoking in public places and intervention and education programs in schools. Health behaviour intervention research has since expanded to include areas such as vaping and cannabis.
1990s
In 1997, UW Fitness was established to provide high-quality comprehensive fitness appraisals and exercise programs for members of the University and local community. By 2002, it had pioneered UW WELL-FIT, an innovative rehabilitation program for individuals undergoing cancer treatment, which now serves as a model for other organizations. UW Fitness eventually evolved into a key area of the Centre for Community, Clinical and Applied Research Excellence (CCCARE), which opened its doors in 2016.
The Lyle S. Hallman Institute was created with the generosity of the late Lyle Hallman in 1999. His gift continues to impact our Faculty through the Lyle S. Hallman Professorial Endowment and other initiatives he envisioned, including the Hallman Lecture Series, bringing health promotion to the broader community.
2000s
Research into aging became a core strength in all three academic units in the Faculty, having impact on areas such as Alzheimer’s and dementia, vascular aging, balance and gait, nutrition and aging, exercise and aging, primary care and the use of technology in health care. This expertise in aging-related fields continues to this day in all three academic units and through the Network for Aging Research.
The study of biomechanics had long been a research focus, but in 2004, the Centre of Research Expertise for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders (CRE-MSD) was founded. CRE-MSD has had an impact on preventing workplace injury caused by musculoskeletal disorders – the single largest contributor to lost time claims and costs around the world. It is funded in part through a grant by the Ontario Ministry of Labour.
2010s AND BEYOND
More recently, the effects of climate change have figured prominently in research coming out of the School of Public Health Sciences and Recreation and Leisure Studies. Whether it affects primary care, food sustainability and contaminants, Indigenous ways of being or tourism development, the question of how to sustain a healthy planet in the face of climate emergency is pressing. Paired with the use of big data and health systems, some researchers are also making an impact around the world, such as Mongolia and rural Africa.
Some faculty members have begun to focus on issues of equity and thinking about health and wellness as a basic human right. Whether it’s studying how the health of Indigenous, racialized and 2SLGBTQ+ communities is affected by policy and organizational systems, or whether it’s challenging the notions of how marginalized communities access health care, sport and other areas of public life, research in these areas stands to fundamentally change the way our society works.
