More than $4 million awarded to Waterloo health researchers

As a leader in health research, the University of Waterloo is home to extraordinary researchers who collaborate across fields, turning complex, interconnected challenges into opportunities for global change.

Two research projects have been awarded more than $4 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to improve national-level food policies and make continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices more accessible.

“Waterloo’s latest CIHR Project Grant Program projects reflect our innovative approach to public health research,” says Dr. Charmaine Dean, Vice-President, Research & International. “Studies that evaluate national-level food policies and examine inequities in access to continuous glucose monitoring devices both demonstrate significant potential to positively impact the health of Canadians and reduce health care burden. Congratulations to the awardees who are helping move the needle on better public health outcomes.”

CIHR is the Government of Canada’s health research investment agency that funds research across the country to understand the complexities of health and support the development of policies and programs that improve the health of individuals and communities.

Dr. David Hammond | School of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Health

$3,568,725

As Canada works to implement two major policies as part of the federal Healthy Eating Strategy, Dr. David Hammond from the School of Public Health Sciences is assessing their impact at the population-level to identify national trends in dietary patterns and the effectiveness of these measures to improve dietary intake.

In Canada, the policies include nutrition labelling (FOPL) and national school food policies, while other countries such as U.S., Australia and the U.K. are implementing policies such as restrictions on marketing unhealthy food to children and alternative approaches to food labelling.

“Poor diet quality is a leading cause of non-communicable disease, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes,” Hammond says. “To address the growing health and economic burden from unhealthy diet, an increasing number of countries are implementing national-level food policies to modify the food environment. There is a need to evaluate the population-level impact of these policies.”

Since 2018, surveys have been conducted with a total of 230,754 respondents, including adults and youth in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Australia. The study proposes to extend the International Food Policy Study (IFPS) over the next five years, with annual waves of 16,000 adults and 8,500 youth to evaluate national nutrition policies with the potential todirectly inform policy in Canada and globally.

Dr. Wajd Alkabbani | School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science

$481,950

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices are small sensors that measure blood sugar throughout the day and night, giving people with diabetes timely information to help them manage their condition and avoid dangerous complications like very low blood sugar. 

Dr. Wajd Alkabbani from Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy will assess how health policy, social factors and medical conditions affect who gets access to CGM in Canada and how well it works in preventing serious health problems.

The results will provide the first Canada-wide picture of CGM use, its benefits and the inequities in access to guide governments and health systems in making fair coverage decisions, support planning for a national pharmacare program and improve care for all.

“This project is about making sure that important diabetes technologies are reaching the people who need them most,” Alkabbani says. “By examining access, equity, and outcomes together, our goal is to generate evidence that can inform better policies, improve clinical decision-making, and ultimately reduce preventable complications for people living with type 2 diabetes across Canada.”

University of Waterloo’s cross-campus strategy connects researchers and policy scholars to turn discovery into devices, data into insight and policy into practice so that healthier lives are within reach for all communities.

These research projects are supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).