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
- Jetha A, Besen E, Smith PM. Comparing the relationship between age and length of disability across common chronic conditions. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2016;58(5):485-491. doi:10.1097/JOM.0000000000000702.
- Prang KH, Bohensky M, Smith PM, Collie A. Return to work outcomes for workers with mental health conditions: a retrospective cohort study. Injury. 2016;47(1):257-265. doi:10.1016/j.injury.2015.09.011.
- Smith PM, Koehoorn M. Measuring gender when you don't have a gender measure: constructing a gender index using survey data. International Journal for Equity in Health. 2016;15(1):82-. doi:10.1186/s12939-016-0370-4.
- Wong IS, Smith PM, Mustard C, Gignac MA. Health and occupational outcomes among injured, nonstandard shift workers. Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 2015;57(11):1244-1249. doi:10.1097/JOM.0000000000000551.
- Bielecky A, Chen C, Ibrahim S, Beaton DE, Mustard C, Smith PM. The impact of co-morbid mental and physical disorders on presenteeism. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health. 2015;41(6):554-564. doi:10.5271/sjweh.3524.
Speaker Series presentations
- Examining gender/sex differences in work injury risk, consequences of work injury and the relationship between work stress and chronic disease. IWH Speaker Series. October 14, 2014.
- The impact of job strain on the risk of depression. IWH Speaker Series. October 25, 2011.
- Examining changes in injuries submitted as no-lost-time claims in Ontario between 1991 and 2006. IWH Speaker Series. October 12, 2010.
- Examining trends in no-lost-time claims in Ontario, 1991-2006. IWH Speaker Series. March 31, 2009.
- An examination of the working conditions and risk factors for work-related injuries among immigrant workers in Ontario. IWH Speaker Series. February 3, 2009.
Interviews and articles
- Study of educators during pandemic found psychosocial conditions worse for those teaching online. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 110, Fall 2022.
- Study raises concerns about popular psychosocial work survey. Canadian HR Reporter. June 23, 2022. Available from: https://www.hrreporter.com/focus-areas/people-analytics/study-raises-concerns-about-popular-psychosocial-work-survey/367668
- What research can do: IWH input contributes to enhancement of WSIB’s Health and Safety Index. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 108, Spring 2022.
- Widely used survey lacks ability to tell apart 13 distinct psychosocial work factors. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 108, Spring 2022.
- Host of symptoms, variable recovery times complicate return to work for those with long COVID. CBC Radio - The Current. February 2, 2022. Available from: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-jan-21-2022-1.6322837/host-of-symptoms-variable-recovery-times-complicate-return-to-work-for-those-with-long-covid-1.6333734