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
- 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.
- Artificial intelligence and occupational injury and illness in Ontario: implications for prevention and recovery. Funded by Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. Ongoing.
- Assessing the psychosocial work environment in British Columbia to inform prevention activities . Funded by Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD), WorkSafeBC. Ongoing. (PI on the project)
- Cannabis and workplace fatalities: establishing a baseline in Ontario. Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Ongoing. (PI on the project)
- Correcting for participation bias in non-probability samples using multiple reference samples. Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Ongoing. (PI on the project)
Publications
- Smith PM, Smith BT, Mustard C, Lu H, Glazier RH. Estimating the direct and indirect pathways between education and diabetes incidence among Canadian men and women: a mediation analysis. Annals of Epidemiology. 2013;23(3):143-149. doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2012.12.012.
- Smith PM, Bielecky A, Mustard C, Beaton DE, Hogg-Johnson S, Ibrahim S, Koehoorn M, McLeod CB, Saunders R, Scott-Marshall H. The relationship between age and work injury in British Columbia: examining differences across time and nature of injury. Journal of Occupational Health. 2013;55:98-107. doi:10.1539/joh.12-0219-OA.
- Smith PM, Fritschi L, Reid A, Mustard C. The relationship between shift work and body mass index among Canadian nurses. Applied Nursing Research. 2013;26(1):24-31. doi:10.1016/j.apnr.2012.10.001.
- Smith PM, Mustard C, Lu H, Glazier RH. Comparing the risk associated with psychosocial work conditions and health behaviours on incident hypertension over a nine-year period in Ontario, Canada. Canadian Journal of Public Health. 2013;104(1):e82-e86.
- Mustard C, Chambers A, McLeod CB, Bielecky A, Smith PM. Work injury risk by time of day in two population-based data sources. Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2013;70(1):49-56. doi:10.1136/oemed-2012-100920.
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
- Research explores health and safety issues in immigrant workers. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 47, Winter 2007.