Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative
Backgrounder
News Release: Government of Canada announces investment of more than $40M in child health research
The prevalence of non-communicable diseases – including cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, diabetes and mental health issues – is on the rise.
To address this issue, CIHR has developed the Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative (HeLTI), which is based on the concept that chronic disease in later life has its origins in the earliest years of life, i.e., that environmental factors interact with genes during conception, fetal life, infancy and early childhood, and that this programming affects the individual’s health later in life. Overall, the initiative is designed to promote the health of children and their growth and development into healthy adults through effective health policies and programs.
Researchers based in Canada, China, India, and South Africa and supported by the World Health Organization are forming teams. Together, they will lead studies of sample populations in the various countries to examine and compare the effectiveness of interventions designed to reduce the prevalence of non-communicable diseases.
Indigenous HeLTI
In December 2017, CIHR will launch a process to bring together interested First Nations, Métis, Inuit and urban Indigenous communities for a workshop to discuss the development of an Indigenous component of the HeLTI initiative.
Funded Projects
| Country | Lead Canadian Investigator | Project | Total Funding | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | Dr. Cindy-Lee Dennis St. Michael’s Hospital and University of Toronto |
A ten-year study that will follow families to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions for childhood obesity and other modifiable risk factors for disease later in life. | $17,018,637 | Not applicable. Funded solely by CIHR |
| India | Dr. Stephen Matthews University of Toronto |
This India-based team will investigate how exposures in the preconception period and during pregnancy, infancy and childhood impact life-long health and development in children. | $4,856,925 | Ministry of Science & Technology Government of India |
| China | Dr. William Fraser Université de Sherbrooke |
A community-based, multi-centre randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of interventions to reduce overweight and obesity in one-to-six-year-old children in China. | $5,500,000 | National Natural Science Foundation of China |
| South Africa | Dr. Stephen Lye Sinai Health System (Toronto) |
A project to test how to improve women’s health prior to and during pregnancy in order to reduce health challenges experienced by their children later in life such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and stunted growth. | $5,027,500 | South African Medical Research Council |
| Funding for previous projects (2015 – present) | ||||
| Canada | Dr. Isabel Fortier Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (Montreal) |
This project concerns the development of a web-based catalogue and harmonization platform that will allow the Canadian research community to access a rich trove of study data and samples to aid in their research into the origins of chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and mental illness. | $1,300,000 | Not applicable. Funded solely by CIHR |
| Dr. Sonia Anand McMaster University (Hamilton, ON) |
The goal of the project is to uncover the markers in the blood of pregnant mothers and their children that may forecast a child’s risk for developing diabetes and heart disease. | $1,498,268 | ||
| Dr. Sarah Kimmins McGill University (Montreal) |
The long-term aim of the project is the development of preconception advice for men that will lead to healthier children. | $1,500,000 | ||
| Dr. Michael Kobor University of British Columbia (Vancouver) |
This research will test whether multiple sources of stress during pregnancy can predict a child’s mental health early in life and what some protective factors might be that can promote resiliency to the development of disease risk in children. | $1,500,000 | ||
| Dr. Deborah Sloboda McMaster University (Hamilton, ON) |
This study asks the question, how is that exposure to an obese environment (i.e., excess adipose) in utero gives rise to children who are destined to become obese? | $1,499,870 | ||
| Dr. Ashley Wazana Jewish General Hospital (Montreal) |
A study of subjects in Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Singapore to develop a model to attempt to predict anxious and depressive psychopathology in early adolescence. | $1,496,217 | ||
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