Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Faculty Member

Peter M Smith Ph.D., MPH

Research Interests

• Labour market inequalities and their health related outcomes
• Measurement properties of self-reported survey instruments
• Analyses of administrative data for research purposes
• Path analysis and structural equation modeling

Primary Teaching Responsibilities

CHL5428 – Epidemiological methods for causal mediation analyses

Honours & Awards

Research Chair: Gender, Work and Health: Examining gender/sex differences in the relationships between work stress and disease, work injury risk, and the consequences of work injury. Canadian Institutes of Health Research. 2014 — 2019

Discovery Early Career Researcher Award: The impact of the ageing workforce on work injury and compensation systems in Australia. Australian Research Council. 2013 — 2015

New Investigator Award. Examining labour market changes and their consequences on injury and illness in Canada: a focused examination of their effects on recent immigrants. Canadian Institutes of Health Research. 2008 — 2013

Current Research Projects

Smith P (PI), Mustard C, Koehoorn M, Peters C, Jetha A, Carnide N. (2022) Health and work impacts of work-acquired COVID-19. Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Operating Grant: Addressing the Wider Health Impacts of COVID-19.

Smith P (co-PI), Carnide N (co-PI), Frone M, Furlan A, Meister SR and Porath AJ (2019) Toking 9 to 5? Examining the impact of cannabis legalization on workplace cannabis use and perceptions among Canadian workers. Canadian Institutes of Health Research Project Grant

Mustard CA, Smith P, Tompa E (2018) Ontario Injured Workers Outcome Study. Grants Program, Ontario Workplace Safety & Insurance Board.

Representative Publications

Orchard C, Smith P, and Kromhout H. (2022) Gender differences in authorship prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic in research submissions to Occupational and Environmental Medicine (2017-2021). Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 79, 361 — 364. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2021-107915

Smith P and Oudyk J. (2022) Assessing the psychometric properties of the Guarding Minds @ Work questionnaire recommended in the Canadian Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. Quality & Quantity. 56(5), 1111 — 3133. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-021-01269-6

Smith P, Oudyk J, Potter G and Mustard CA. (2021) 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, 66 (1),17-24.

Smith P, LaMontagne AD, Lilley R, Hogg-Johnson S, Sim M (2020) Are there differences in the return to work process for work-related psychological and musculoskeletal injuries? A longitudinal path analysis. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 55, 1041 — 1051

Smith P, Cawley C, Williams A and Mustard CA (2020) Male/female differences in the impact of caring for elderly relatives on labour market attachment and hours of work: 1997 to 2015. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 75 (3), 694 — 704

Chen C, Smith P, and Mustard C (2019) Gender differences in injuries attributed to workplace violence in Ontario 2002-2015. Occupational & Environmental Medicine, 76 (1), 3 — 9

Dobson K, Gilbert-Ouimet M, Mustard CA and Smith P (2018) Association between dimensions of the psychosocial and physical work environment and latent smoking trajectories: a 16-year cohort study of the Canadian workforce. Occupational & Environmental Medicine, 75 (11), 814 — 821

Smith P, Ma H, Gilbert-Ouimet M, Glazier R and Mustard CA (2018) The relationship between occupational standing and sitting and incident heart disease over a 12-year period in Ontario, Canada. American Journal of Epidemiology, 187 (1), 27 — 33.

Dimitriadis C, LaMontagne AD, Lilley R, Hogg-Johnson S, Sim MR and Smith P (2017) Cohort Profile: Workers’ compensation in a changing Australian labour market- the Return to Work (RTW) Study. BMJ Open, 7, e016366.

McInnes JA, Akram M, MacFarlane E, Sim MR and Smith P (2017) Association between high ambient temperature and acute work-related injury: a case-crossover analysis using workers’ compensation claims data. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 43 (1), 86–94.

Smith P and Koehoorn M (2016) Measuring gender when you don’t have a gender measure: constructing a gender index using survey data. International Journal for Equity in Health, 15, 82.

Smith P, Saunders R, Lifshen M, Black O, Lay M, Breslin FC, LaMontagne, AD and Tompa E (2015) The development of a conceptual model and self-reported measure of occupational health and safety vulnerability. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 82, 234 — 243.

Smith P (2015) Workplace climate, employee actions, work injury and structural equation modeling [invited commentary]. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 72 (7), 465 — 466.

Smith P, Bielecky A, Ibrahim S, Mustard CA, Saunders R, Beaton DE, Koehoorn M, McLeod C, Scott-Marshall H, Hogg-Johnson (2014) Impact of pre-existing chronic conditions on age differences in sickness absence after a musculoskeletal work injury: A path analysis approach. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 40 (2), 167 – 175

McInnes JA, Clapperton AJ, Day LM, MacFarlane EM, Sim MR and Smith P (2014) Comparison of datasets for surveillance of work-related injury in Victoria, Australia. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 71 (11), 780 — 787.

Smith P, Ibrahim-Dost J, Keegel T and MacFarlane E (2013) Gender differences in the relationship between shift work and work injury: examining the influence of dependent children. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 55 (8), 932 – 936

Smith P, Mustard CA, Lu H and Glazier R (2013) 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, 104 (1), e82 — e86.

Smith P, Smith BT, Mustard CA, Lu H and Glazier R (2013) Estimating the direct and indirect pathways between education and diabetes incidence among Canadian men and women: A mediation analysis. Annals of Epidemiology, 23 (3), 143 — 149.

Smith P and Bielecky A (2012) Examining the impact of changes in job strain and its components on the risk of depression. American Journal of Public Health, 102 (2), 352 — 358.

Smith P, Hogg-Johnson S, Mustard CA, Chen C and Tompa E. (2012) Comparing the risk factors associated with serious versus and less serious work-related injuries in Ontario between 1991 and 2006. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 55 (1), 84 — 91.

Morassaei S and Smith P (2011) A path analysis examining the effects of working conditions on leisure time physical activity in Canada. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 53 (10), 1099 — 1105.

Smith P, Bielecky A and Frank JW (2011) Commentary: Intervention research on working conditions and mental health: persistent challenges, new directions, and opportunities to integrate research agendas. HealthcarePapers, 11 (Sp), 67 — 72

Chen C, Smith P, and Mustard CA (2010) The prevalence of over-qualification and subsequent health status among occupationally-active new immigrants to Canada. Ethnicity & Health, 15 (6), 601 — 619.

Smith P and Mustard CA (2009) Comparing the risk of work-related injuries between immigrant and Canadian-born labour market participants. Occupational & Environmental Medicine, 66 (6), 361 — 367.

Smith P, Frank JW and Mustard CA (2009) Trends in educational inequalities in smoking and physical activity in Canada: 1974 to 2005. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 63 (4), 317 — 323.

Ibrahim S, Smith P, Muntaner C. (2009) A multi-group cross-lagged analyses of work stressors and health using Canadian National sample. Social Science & Medicine, 68(1):49-59

Smith P, Beaton D. (2008) Measuring change in psychosocial working conditions: methodological issues to consider when data are collected at baseline and one follow-up time-point. Occupational & Environmental Medicine, 65(4):288-296.

Smith P, Frank JW, Mustard CA, Bondy S. (2008) Examining the relationships between job control and health status: A path analysis approach. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 62(1):54-61.