Dr. Peter Smith
Dr. Peter Smith is an associate scientific director and a senior scientist at the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto. He also holds appointments as an associate professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, and in the School of Population Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University in Australia.
Smith has a master's in public health from the University of New South Wales, Australia, and a PhD from the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. He is a previous recipient of a five-year Research Chair in Gender, Work and Health (2014-2018) from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR),a CIHR New Investigator Award (2008-2013) and a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award from the Australian Research Council (2012-2014).
Smith has extensive experience conducting research related to work injury and its consequences using large population-based surveys and administrative workers' compensation data. His key research interests include: gender and sex differences in the relationship between work and the risk of chronic disease and work injury; the nature and measurement of occupational health and safety vulnerability; return-to-work experiences for people with mental health conditions; and the long-term outcomes of injured workers.
“I don’t understand how people can think about health without thinking about work. Between our early 20s and our 60s – and later for some people – we spend most of our waking hours at work. It makes sense, then, that aspects of work must have an impact on different aspects of our health, both positively and negatively. That drives me to better understand what good work and bad work look like from a health and return-to-work perspective.” – Dr. Peter Smith
Research areas
Projects
- Accommodating and Communicating about Episodic Disabilities (ACED): A partnership to deliver workplace resources to sustain employment of people with chronic, episodic conditions. Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada Signature Initiative. Ongoing.
- Cannabis and workplace fatalities: establishing a baseline in Ontario. Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Ongoing. (PI on the project)
- Developing recommendations for an integrated approach to workplace health protection and health promotion. Funded by Alberta OHS Future. Ongoing.
- Do work exposures and their effects differ for men and women? A systematic review. Funded by WorkSafeBC. Ongoing.
- Future-proofing young Canadians with disabilities for the changing labour market. Funded by Tri-Agency Institutional Programs Secretariat (Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada). Ongoing.
Publications
- Orchard C, Carnide N, Smith PM. How does perceived fairness in the workers' compensation claims process affect mental health following a workplace injury?. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation. 2020;30(1):40-48. doi:10.1007/s10926-019-09844-3.
- Dobson KG, Gilbert-Ouimet M, Mustard C, Smith PM. Body mass index trajectories among the Canadian workforce and their association with work environment trajectories over 17 years. Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2020 [epub ahead of print]. doi:10.1136/oemed-2019-106023.
- Tait CA, L'Abbe MR, Smith PM, Watson T, Kornas K, Rosella LC. Adherence to predefined dietary patterns and risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the Canadian adult population. Canadian Journal of Diabetes. 2020;44(2):175-183. doi:10.1016/j.jcjd.2019.06.002.
- Smith PM, Cawley C, Williams A, Mustard C. Male/female differences in the impact of caring for elderly relatives on labor market attachment and hours of work: 1997-2015. The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. 2020;75(3):694-704. doi:10.1177/0733464818755313.
- Nadalin V, Smith PM. Examining the impact of occupational health and safety vulnerability on injury claim reporting in three Canadian provinces. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. 2020 [epub ahead of print]. doi:10.1002/ajim.23094.
Speaker Series presentations
- Reporting and consequences of workplace violence in six Ontario hospitals. IWH Speaker Series. May 22, 2018.
- Towards a better understanding of differences in the risk of workplace violence for men and women in Canada. IWH Speaker Series. March 27, 2018.
- Evaluating the impact of mandatory awareness training in Ontario. IWH Speaker Series. April 11, 2017.
- Understanding return to work in MSD claims versus psychological injuries, for younger workers versus older workers. IWH Speaker Series. September 29, 2015.
- Developing a measure of OHS vulnerability. IWH Speaker Series. January 20, 2015.
Interviews and articles
- Poorer post-injury experiences lead to worse RTW outcomes for psychological claimants . At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 99, Winter 2020.
- Claimants’ perceptions of fair treatment linked to lower odds of poor mental health. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 98, Fall 2019.
- As teachers report more violent incidents in schools, boards struggle. The Globe and Mail. September 7, 2019. Available from: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/education/article-as-teachers-report-more-violent-incidents-in-schools-boards-struggle/
- What research can do: IWH research helps prevention system shift focus from young to new workers. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 97, Summer 2019.
- Psychosocial work conditions linked with both positive and negative mental health. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 97, Summer 2019.