Chronic disease prevention policy in British Columbia and Ontario in light of public health renewal: a comparative policy analysis

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dc.contributor.authorKothari, Anita
dc.contributor.authorGore, Dana
dc.contributor.authorMacDonald, Marjorie
dc.contributor.authorBursey, Gayle
dc.contributor.authorAllan, Diane
dc.contributor.authorScarr, Jennifer
dc.contributor.authorRenewal of Public Health Systems Research Team
dc.date.accessioned2015-03-12T19:41:05Z
dc.date.available2015-03-12T19:41:05Z
dc.date.copyright2013en_US
dc.date.issued2013-10-08
dc.descriptionBioMed Centralen_US
dc.description.abstractBackground: Public health strategies that focus on legislative and policy change involving chronic disease risk factors such as unhealthy diet and physical inactivity have the potential to prevent chronic diseases and improve quality of life as a whole. However, many public health policies introduced as part of public health reform have not yet been analyzed, such as in British Columbia and Ontario. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a descriptive, comparative analysis of public health policies related to the Healthy Living Core Program in British Columbia and Chronic Disease Prevention Standard in Ontario that are intended to prevent a range of chronic diseases by promoting healthy eating and physical activity, among other things. Methods: Policy documents were found through Internet search engines and Ministry websites, at the guidance of policy experts. These included government documents as well as documents from non-governmental organizations that were implementing policies and programs at a provincial level. Documents (n = 31) were then analysed using thematic content analysis to classify, describe and compare policies in a systematic fashion, using the software NVivo. Results: Three main categories emerged from the analysis of documents: 1) goals for chronic disease prevention in British Columbia and Ontario, 2) components of chronic disease prevention policies, and 3) expected outputs of chronic disease prevention interventions. Although there were many similarities between the two provinces, they differed somewhat in terms of their approach to issues such as evidence, equity, and policy components. Some expected outputs were adoption of healthy behaviours, use of information, healthy environments and increased public awareness. Conclusions: The two provincial policies present different approaches to support the implementation of related programs. Differences may be related to contextual factors such as program delivery structures and different philosophical approaches underlying the two frameworks. These differences and possible explanations for them are important to understand because they serve to contextualize the differences in health outcomes across the two provinces that might eventually be observed. This analysis informs future public health policy directions as the two provinces can learn from each other.en_US
dc.description.reviewstatusRevieweden_US
dc.description.scholarlevelFacultyen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis research was funded by a CIHR Emerging Team Grant (FRN #92255) “Renewal of Public Health Systems in BC and Ontario” to Drs. M. MacDonald, T. Hancock and B. Pauly, Principal Investigators). MM is partially supported by a CIHR/PHAC Applied Public Health Chair award. AK is partially supported by a CIHR New Investigator award.en_US
dc.identifier.citationKothari et al.: Chronic disease prevention policy in British Columbia and Ontario in light of public health renewal: a comparative policy analysis. BMC Public Health 2013 13:934.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/13/934
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-934
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/5906
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherBMC Public Healthen_US
dc.rights.tempAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/*
dc.subjectHealth policy analysis
dc.subjectPublic health
dc.subjectHealth promotion
dc.subjectHealthy eating
dc.subjectPhysical activity
dc.subjectFramework for Core Functions in Public Health
dc.subjectOntario Public Health Standards
dc.subjectPublic health systems
dc.subject.departmentSchool of Nursing
dc.titleChronic disease prevention policy in British Columbia and Ontario in light of public health renewal: a comparative policy analysisen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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