Dr. Faraz Vahid Shahidi
Dr. Faraz Vahid Shahidi is an associate scientist at the Institute for Work & Health. He is also an assistant professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
Shahidi has a PhD in social and behavioural health sciences from the University of Toronto and an MPhil in comparative social policy from the University of Oxford. Prior to his current position, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for Work & Health.
Shahidi is a social epidemiologist with interdisciplinary training in public health, social policy and political economy. His research examines the social and economic determinants of population health, with a focus on the role that societal conditions play in shaping the health and safety of working people. Some of his specific areas of interest include: the health effects of precarious employment; the impact of labour market policies on population health and health equity; the contribution of working conditions to social inequalities in health; and the structural determinants of occupational injury and illness.
“Work is integral to virtually every aspect of our lives. Work is also a major driver of social inequality in our society. Policies that improve the availability and quality of employment are therefore key to improving population health and reducing health inequalities. With this in mind, my research aims to better understand the role of work as a social determinant of health.” – Dr. Faraz Shahidi
Projects
- Understanding the role of parental employment quality in child mental health. Funded by Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children. Ongoing. (PI on the project)
- Using decision-tree machine learning to identify worker movement typologies . Ongoing.
Publications
- Jetha A, Tucker L, Shahidi FV, Backman C, Kristman VL, Hazel EM, Perlin L, Proulx L, Chen C, Gignac MA. How does job insecurity and workplace activity limitations relate to rheumatic disease symptom trajectories in young adulthood? A longitudinal study. Arthritis Care & Research. 2023;75(1):14-21. doi:10.1002/acr.24982.
- Shahidi FV, Smith PM, Oudyk J, Gignac MA. Longitudinal reciprocal relationships between the psychosocial work environment and burnout. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2022;64(3):226-235. doi:10.1097/JOM.0000000000002396.
- Fuller A, Siddiqi A, Shahidi FV, Anderson LN , Hildebrand V, Keown-Stoneman CDG, Maguire JL, Birken C. Understanding income-related differences in distribution of child growth, behaviour and development using a cross-sectional sample of a clinical cohort study. BMJ Open. 2022;12(2):e056991. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056991.
- Smith PM, Smith BT, Warren C, Shahidi FV, Buchan S, Mustard C. The prevalence and correlates of workplace infection control practices in Canada between July and September 2020. Health Reports. 2021 . doi:10.25318/82-003-x202101100002-eng.
- Blair A, Parnia A, Shahidi FV, Siddiqi A. Social inequalities in protective behaviour uptake at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic: results from a national survey. Canadian Journal of Public Health. 2021;112(5):818-830. doi:10.17269/s41997-021-00553-0.
Speaker Series presentations
- Is precarious employment an occupational hazard?. IWH Speaker Series. February 13, 2024.
- Racial and ethnic inequities in the return-to-work of workers following an injury or illness: Findings from a systematic review. IWH Speaker Series. January 17, 2023.
- The employment quality of persons with disabilities: findings from a national survey. IWH Speaker Series. April 12, 2022.
Interviews and articles
- Canadians with disabilities twice as likely to report low quality employment than those without disabilities. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 112, Spring 2023.
- IWH study finds psychosocial work stressors lead to burnout, but not vice versa. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 107, Winter 2022.
- For a segment of the workforce, psychosocial working conditions are poor across the board. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 106, Fall 2021.
- Unemployment benefits linked to lower mortality rates over 10 years: IWH study. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 106, Fall 2021.
- Canada’s health inequalities between rich and poor exposed in new study. Huffington Post. September 28, 2020. Available from: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/canada-health-inequality-study_ca_5f71f4fcc5b64deddef13346