Dr. Peter Smith
Dr. Peter Smith is president and senior scientist at the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) in Toronto, and a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Prior to moving into the president's role in January 2022, Smith was IWH's scientific co-director.
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 former recipient of a New Investigator Award (2008-2013) from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR),a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award from the Australian Research Council (2012-2014), and a five-year CIHR Research Chair in Gender, Work and Health (2014-2018).
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 health; labour market inequalities and their health-related outcomes; 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
Projects
- Transitioning to the future of work: an intersectional study of vulnerable youth and young adults. Funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Ongoing.
- Trends in the severity of work-related injury in Ontario. Funded by Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD). Ongoing.
- Understanding the activity patterns of Canadians at work and outside of work, and their association with overall health. Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Ongoing.
- Understanding the injury experience of Ontario small businesses through workers’ compensation claims data. Funded by Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD). Ongoing.
- Using decision-tree machine learning to identify worker movement typologies . Ongoing.
Publications
- Shahidi FV, Gignac MA, Oudyk J, Smith PM. Assessing the psychosocial work environment in relation to mental health: a comprehensive approach. Annals of Work Exposures and Health. 2021 [epub ahead of print]. doi:10.1093/annweh/wxaa130.
- Dobson KG , Vigod SN, Mustard C, Smith PM. Major depressive episodes and employment earnings trajectories over the following decade among working-aged Canadian men and women. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2021;285:37-46. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2021.02.019.
- Smith PM, Oudyk J, Potter G, Mustard C. The association between the perceived adequacy of workplace infection control procedures and personal protective equipment with mental health symptoms: a cross-sectional survey of Canadian health-care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 2021;66(1):17-24. doi:10.1177/0706743720961729.
- Biswas A, Begum M, Van Eerd D, Smith PM, Gignac MA. Organizational perspectives on how to successfully integrate health promotion activities into occupational health and safety. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2021;63(4):270-284. doi:10.1097/JOM.0000000000002087.
- Quinn TD, Yorio PL, Smith PM, Seo Y, Whitfield GP, Gibbs BB. Occupational physical activity and cardiovascular disease in the United States. Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 2021;78(10):724-30. doi:10.1136/oemed-2020-106948.
Speaker Series presentations
- Refining estimates of occupational exposures and risk of workplace COVID-19 transmission. IWH Speaker Series. January 16, 2024.
- Building on the past, looking to the future: Presenting the IWH Strategic Plan, 2023-27. IWH Speaker Series. May 23, 2023.
- Workplace COVID-19 protections and transmission: Findings from population-level data in Canada. IWH Speaker Series. October 19, 2021.
- Differences in the return-to-work process for work-related psychological and musculoskeletal conditions: findings from an Australian cohort. IWH Speaker Series. April 6, 2021.
- More than just COVID-19 prevention: Exploring the links between PPE, safe work protocols and workers' mental health. IWH Speaker Series. November 10, 2020.
Interviews and articles
- Women in education sector at greater risk of workplace violence. Canadian Occupational Safety. August 31, 2018. Available from: https://www.cos-mag.com/psychological-health-safety/37860-women-in-education-sector-at-greater-risk-of-workplace-violence/
- Work-related stressors impact women and men differently, research finds. Workers Health & Safety Centre. August 28, 2018. Available from: https://www.whsc.on.ca/what-s-new/news-archive/work-related-stressors-impact-women-and-men-differ
- Sex/gender analysis: Links between psychosocial work factors and stress not always as expected. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 93, Summer 2018.
- Sex/gender analysis: Are risks of violence at work higher for men or women? It depends on type of violence. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 93, Summer 2018.
- Working overtime could raise women's diabetes risk. U.S. News & World Report. July 2, 2018. Available from: https://health.usnews.com/health-care/articles/2018-07-02/working-overtime-could-raise-womens-diabetes-risk