Over the summer, I participated in the Centre for Environmental Health Equity’s Knowledge Leaders in Children’s Environmental Health program. The program brought together 20 emerging leaders in children’s environmental health research, policy, and community advocacy from across Canada to share knowledge, experience, and priorities and to collaborate to improve health and health equity for children in Canada.
Participating in the program provided a great opportunity to think about some of the structural barriers to good health that children face. We built on this in our report for the Ontario Healthy Kids Panel on reducing childhood obesity by addressing the social determinants of health. We argued that to address childhood obesity we need to reduce poverty, focus on early childhood development, address neighbourhood factors, and enhance coordination across government.
The Centre for Environmental Health Equity has posted a guest blog on their website highlighting the findings from our work on childhood obesity.