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. In 2014, he was awarded a five-year Research Chair in Gender, Work and Health (2014-2018) from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). He is the former recipient of 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; labour market inequalities and their health-related outcomes; the labour market experiences of newcomers, older workers, younger workers and other vulnerable labour force subgroups; chronic illnesses and work injury; and trends in working conditions over time.
“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.
- 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.
- Improving information on the incidence of work-related injuries and illnesses in Ontario. Funded by Ontario Ministry of Labour Research Opportunities Program . Ongoing.
- Inter-jurisdictional comparison of OHS and workers’ compensation system performance. Funded by Manitoba Workers Compensation Board. Ongoing.
Publications
- Fritschi L, Smith PM. Value of occupational health research . Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2019;76(12):873-874. doi:10.1136/oemed-2019-106091.
- Lane TJ, Lilley R, Black O, Sim MR, Smith PM. Health care provider communication and the duration of time loss among injured workers: a prospective cohort study. Medical Care. 2019;57(9):718-722. doi:10.1097/MLR.0000000000001160.
- 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. 2019 [epub ahead of print]. doi:10.1007/s10926-019-09844-3.
- Breslin FC, Dollack J, Mahood Q, Maas ET, Laberge M, Smith PM. Are new workers at elevated risk for work injury? A systematic review. Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 2019;76(9):694-701. doi:10.1136/oemed-2018-105639.
- Shafi R, Smith PM, Colantonio A. Assault predicts time away from work after claims for work-related mild traumatic brain injury. Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 2019;76(7):471-478. doi:10.1136/oemed-2018-105621.
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
- Claimants’ perceptions of fair treatment linked to lower odds of poor mental health. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 98, Fall 2019.
- 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.
- Workplace violence against women rising, driven by growing rates in education sector. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 96, Spring 2019.
- Women’s work more likely than men’s to be disrupted due to caring for older relatives. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 96, Spring 2019.