Water Conversations: Does living near water and greenness impact the mortality of Canadian urbanites? Findings from the Canadian Census Cohort

April 19, 2018 at 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM

The Global Water Institute presents the Water Conversations Series to introduce and share research involving water and health to facilitate conversations and collaboration between researchers, faculty and students.

April’s speaker will be Dr. Paul Villeneuve from the Health Sciences Department at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ Unversity, Affiliated Researcher at the CHAIM Centre.

´ˇ˛ú˛őłŮ°ů˛ął¦łŮ:ĚýA number of epidemiological studies have shown that exposure to natural environments, such as green space, is associated with many health benefits. To date, few studies have looked at the potential link between living near water and mortality. We evaluated whether living near large, natural water features (e.g., lakes, rivers, coasts, “blue space”) as well as green space was associated with cause-specific mortality in a population-based cohort of non-immigrant, adults living in the 30 largest Canadian cities. Our cohort consisted of individuals who completed the mandatory 2001 Statistics Canada long-form census (1 in 5 households). These individuals were linked to the Canadian mortality database, and to annual income tax filings, through 2011. We estimated associations between living within 250 m of blue space and green space and several common causes of death. We adjusted models for many personal and contextual covariates, as well as for exposures to ambient air pollution. Our cohort included approximately 1·3 million subjects at baseline, 106,180 of whom died from non-accidental causes during follow-up. There were slight differences in sociodemographic characteristics between individuals living by water and not, but model point estimates changed only slightly with the inclusion of a comprehensive set of confounding factors. We reduced risks of mortality in the range of 12-17% associated with living within 250 m of water compared to living further away, among all causes of death examined, except with external/accidental causes. Similar inverse associations were noted for measures of greenness. Our findings suggest that living near nature has important benefits to health, but further work is needed to better understand the drivers of this association

Please RSVP with the main contact, Christiane Mineau by email or by phone.

Learn more about Dr. Paul Villeneuve and the research he does at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University here.

So who are these enterprising colleagues?

Our most recent presentation at the CHAIM Brown Bag Series featured Dr. Katie Gunnell who presented her interests in the relationship between psychological health and exercise. While originally trained in kinesiology on a path to physiotherapy, Gunnell found that, often, “people weren’t motivated to do the prescribed exercises. They wanted a cure, but weren’t willing to do the work—so why are some people motivated and others are not?” Gunnell gravitated towards motivational research, as well as further exploring the relations between physical activity and mental or psychological health.

While in a previous research position at Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute (CHEO-RI), Gunnell worked alongside physiologists and public health specialists to determine psychological effects of screen-time. “Youth are exposed to screens all the time. We need to gain more knowledge to bring attention to red flags so we can learn to use screens to our advantage as opposed to having them have negative impacts on our health.” Gunnell continues to examine the relations between screen-time and physical and mental health: is there bad vs. good screen time? How can quality indicators of screen-time be developed? What are the qualitative and quantitative components in screen time?  Having worked in interdisciplinary teams at the CHEO-RI, and throughout her educational career through Brock University, University of British Columbia, and University of Ottawa, Gunnell values the potential from collaboration of interdisciplinary teams in research, as well as in knowledge dissemination and translation. Still involved in knowledge dissemination at the CHEO-RI, Gunnell acknowledges the importance of “actively working with knowledge users” to inform, engage, and inspire healthy active living.

Similarly, Dr. Rachel Burns is interested in healthy behaviours and health outcomes. Burns came to ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ in July 2017 following a post-doc at McGill University, where she examined relations between mental health and diabetes. Using large observational data sets, Burns investigated how mental health influences well-being and overall health outcomes. Since starting at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´, Burns has been working with big data sets to examine patterns related to depression and diabetes development over time. For example, she is currently exploring the differential implications of depressive symptoms over a long period of time compared to periodic, short periods of time, in relation to diabetes outcomes. Alongside this work, she is examining whether the well-being of one’s romantic partner might be implicated in the evolution of diabetes.

Burns first blended her interests of psychology and biology during her undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph. During her PhD studies at the University of Minnesota, she started to research the psychological processes that help people to maintain healthy behaviours overtime. “A big issue is that people start to engage in healthy behaviors, but shortly afterwards, they stop… so how can we help maintain these behaviours overtime?” One promising notion, she highlights, is the idea of habits; habits are automatic impulses to perform a behavior that are triggered by a stable cue in the environment and their enactment doesn’t require attention. Burns plans to explore habits in relation to physical activity. For example, she asks “Which type of people are most likely to develop strong habits for going to the [ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´] Athletic Centre?” Understanding habit formation and function could help people maintain healthy behaviors overtime. “If we understand these processes, we can leverage them over time… we can shape interventions for diabetes or heart disease and help people live healthier lives.”

Maintaining healthy behaviours and pursing health goals are also a primary interest of Dr. Marina Milyavskaya. Specifically, Milyavskaya considers why people are successful in pursuing certain goals, but not others, as well as how this translates to day-to-day goal pursuit. After an inspiring motivational psychology class during her undergrad at McGill, Milyavskaya knew she wanted to pursue a graduate degree that focused on goals and self-regulation. After completing a Clinical Psychology degree, she realized her stronger interests are in research, and sought a post-doc at the University of Toronto researching self-control and temptations.

In her research, Milyavskaya discovered that self-control didn’t seem to matter as much as temptation. “If the goal is to eat healthy, what matters is the frequency of exposure to temptations—so don’t have chocolate in the house!” Milyavskaya has been at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ since July 2015, and uses methods from social cognition, personality psychology, ecological momentary assessment, and advanced statistical modelling to better understand the mechanisms of goal pursuit, as well as strategies and interventions that can be used to better attain personal goals. Milyavskaya embraces the translation of research to those who can use it, having previously written blog-style articles explaining her research findings to lay people. In addition, she highlights the importance for researchers within the University to know what research is happening across campus, and if there is potential for new collaborations. “The Brown Bag Series is trying to bring that community [of health researchers] together.”

The Brown Bag Series will run the second Friday of every month, and will invite health researcher speakers from across campus, their research partners, or potential partners conducting relevant research in the region. Anyone who is interested in health research across campus is invited to come.  And anyone interested in presenting a talk to get interdisciplinary feedback should get in touch with one of the organizers to get onto the schedule. Stay tuned at the CHAIM centre website and follow us on twitter to keep informed on the Brown Bag Series!

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Growing up, one of my favourite trips was to the doctor’s office. We would get in the car and drive to the doctor’s. I would sit in the waiting room, eagerly waiting for the moment the receptionist called out my name and said “please follow me to your room”. The doctor would finally come in, ask how I was doing and tell me to explain what I was visiting for. A few checkup procedures and five minutes later, I would walk out with a prescription in one hand, a sticker on the other, and torrent of thoughts in mind.

See, what fascinated me about the doctor’s office wasn’t the stickers (though I absolutely loved them). Rather, I was fascinated by how the doctor could ask me for a list of symptoms, check whatever was hurting me and figure out what was going on with my health. Health. What an awesome word. Five-year-old me was fascinated by health. What exactly was health? What did it encompass? Five-year-old me however, built a definition of health based on doctor visits and medical documentaries on television. I thought health only encompassed the physical human body. I thought that health could only be approached from a medical perspective, and could only be treated by doctors.

As I grew older though, I came across other words. Words like stress, anxiety, depression and eventually, mental health. With this, I learned that health was so much more complex than just the physical human body. The World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” I particularly like this definition because it outlines all the other aspects of health I hadn’t been aware of, or really thought about when I pondered health.

The research project we are working on this summer is “Our Pets and Our Health: a photovoice pilot study.” This project is exploring how pets affect the health of people who are vulnerably housed or are dealing with homelessness. I vividly remember my first conversation with Dr. Kim Matheson on the project. During our conversation, she asked me if I’d ever heard of One Health. I hadn’t. When I shook my head and said “No,” she went on to explain what One Health meant. One Health is a multidisciplinary approach to health. It recognizes that human health is interconnected with the health of animals and the environment. It unites multiple fields for the improvement of health. To my great surprise, that one conversation with Dr. Matheson left me with a different understanding of health and many thoughts, insights and curiosity.

Just how closely is human health interconnected with animal health? This is one area of curiosity I just had to satisfy this summer. During the first few weeks of the summer, we spent time reading journal articles and familiarizing ourselves with the literature on this topic. The results of my readings? More insights. Even more curiosity. The benefits people derive from animals is incredible. From their great use in animal assisted therapy to the unconditional love and support they provide to people as pets, their important roles in the lives of people is unrivaled. I am really excited about the Our Pets and Our Health project, as it will provide us with more insights on how pets can positively impact the lives of vulnerable populations.

I never had any pets growing up. Due to this, I never really thought about the ways in which animals played a role in my life. I never thought that animal and human health could be interrelated, especially for someone who had never had a pet. However, working on this research project has allowed me to reflect on how animals have, in fact, played a role in my life. When I look back on my childhood, I have memories of walking to a park by the Rideau River with my family. My dad and I would feed the geese (though we probably shouldn’t have). We would go to hills and watch groundhogs come out. Despite not having a cat ourselves, we would play with the neighbourhood cats. Some of my favourite trips were those to the Agricultural Museum where we would watch horses, cows and other farm animals.

I recently talked to an uncle of mine who had gone on vacation. When I asked for pictures, I didn’t receive pictures of him. I was sent pictures of cats and baby goats. When I go through my camera roll on my phone, I find pictures I’ve taken of animals without giving much thought. Why is that? I’m starting to think it all goes back to One Health. Regardless of whether you’re a pet owner or not, you interact with animals and environment all the time. Ultimately, they do impact your health and play a very important role in your life. This summer has shown me that animals do play a role in our lives and discovering the health benefits we can derive from them is something I’m really looking forward to. I am eager to learn the findings of our research and to continue to expand my definitions, and understanding of health.