Applied Public Health Chair – David Hammond

David Hammond, BA, MSc, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Hammond obtained his BA in Psychology at the University of British Columbia, MSc in Health Studies at the University of Waterloo, and PhD in Psychology (Special Programs) at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Hammond has extensive experience working on programs and policies that have the potential to reach large segments of the population, specifically those that target primary determinants of health including diet, tobacco use, and illicit drug use. Dr. Hammond brings this multidisciplinary experience into his role as CIHR/PHAC Applied Public Health Chair for his project on population-level health interventions in chronic disease prevention.

The decision-making collaborator and primary knowledge user on Dr. Hammond's Chair in Applied Public Health is the Tobacco Products Regulatory Office at Health Canada.

Dr. Hammond's Chair

Tobacco use and obesity are key risk factors for the leading cause of death in Canada, and both tend to be associated with socio-economic disparities, particularly among the most disadvantaged Canadians.

Chair Objective

The primary aim of Dr. Hammond's research as an Applied Public Health Chair, is to investigate and evaluate policies capable of shifting patterns of tobacco use and healthy weights, to explore whether the effectiveness of policies vary among population sub-groups and within different geographical and cultural contexts.

Moving forward in the tobacco use program, Dr. Hammond and his team plan:

  1. To examine international variations in policy impact, including how the effectiveness of tobacco control policies differs between high-, medium-, and low-income countries.
  2. To understand how restrictions on tobacco industry marketing influence susceptibility to smoking and uptake among youth.
  3. To understand the changing nicotine market and implications for tobacco control and public health.
  4. To examine changing patterns of tobacco use in Canada among socio-economic groups.

Moving forward in the diet and healthy weights program, Dr. Hammond and his team plan:

  1. To examine the impact of nutritional labeling policies in key environments, including the retail environment, the restaurant environment, and products and packaging.
  2. To evaluate the effectiveness of federal policy on energy drinks, including use among children and youth, advertising and marketing restrictions, and product constituents.
  3. To examine public understanding and use of dietary guidelines and recommendations, and the extent to which new technologies can promote greater use and comprehension.
  4. To examine health literacy and use of nutrition information among youth and young adults.

In addition, Dr. Hammond has received a P01 Grant from the US National Institutes of Health to examine e-cigarette uptake and the efficacy of policy regulations among 24,000 youth in Canada, the US, and the UK, as well as funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada to begin a national cohort survey to examine dietary patterns among young Canadians.

Want to learn more?

To learn more about Dr. Hammond's research and projects, please visit:

He can also be followed on Twitter @DavidHammondPhD.

Publications

Who is using e-cigarettes in Canada? Nationally representative data on the prevalence of e-cigarette use among Canadians [ PDF (494 KB) - external link ]. Reid JL, Rynard VL, Czoli CD, Hammond. Preventive Medicine 2015;81:180–183. doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.08.019. [Epub 2015 Sept 5].

The efficacy of sugar labeling formats: implications for labeling policy [ PDF (562 KB) - external link ]. Vanderlee L, White CM, Bordes I, Hobin EP, Hammond D. Obesity, 2015. doi: 10.1002/oby.21316. [Epub ahead of print].

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