Sleep Health Equity

The quality and quantity of sleep impacts the health of every Canadian, however, we don’t all start from the same place in life meaning that some individuals face greater challenges than others due to inequity. The Sleep Equity team is interested in the factors that cause modifiable differences (inequities) in sleep health. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has produced a set of guidelines for analyzing quantitative health data from an intersectional point of view. Intersectionality refers to the ways in which different aspects of a person’s identity, such as ethnicity/race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, geographic location, and others, interact to shape not only their experiences but also their access to resources, opportunities, and social power. As a part of the Sleep Consortium, the team will apply the PHAC guidelines to a series of existing datasets that have tracked sleep habits and behaviours in various Canadian populations over time in different ways. Doing this work properly requires consulting with diverse people with lived experiences related to sleep troubles. It also requires appropriate research with Indigenous communities by Indigenous researchers. The overarching goal is to accurately capture risk and resilience (protective) factors in insomnia and sleep health across multiple levels of influence (individual, family, community, culture) to create a clear intersectional model of sleep health that can be applied to developing therapeutic and public health interventions. 

Sleep Health Equity Engagement Project (SHEEP) goals

Understanding research participant and public partner roles

Team Leads

  • Lianne Tomfohr-Madsen

    NOMINATED PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

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  • Tetyana Kendzerska

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

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  • Saverio Stranges

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

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  • Christine Ou

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

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  • Amy Shawanda

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

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  • Elizabeth Keys

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

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  • Marie-Hélène Pennestri

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

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  • Graham Reid

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

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Meet the Team

  • Kelly Anderson, PhD, University of Western Ontario

    Jean-Philippe Chaput, PhD, University of Ottawa

    Reed Ferber, PhD, University of Calgary

    Geneviève Forest, PhD, Université du Québec en Outaouais

    Nils Forkert, PhD, University of Calgary

    Sheila Garland, PhD, Memorial University

    Gerald Giesbrecht, PhD, University of Calgary

    Ryan Giuliano, PhD, University of Manitoba

    Reut Gruber, PhD, McGill University

    Wendy Hall, PhD, University of British Columbia

    Catherine Lebel, PhD University of Calgary

    Sarah MacEachern, MD, PhD, University of Calgary

    Anna MacKinnon, PhD, Université de Montréal

    Jennifer McGrath, PhD, Concordia University Montreal

    Amy Metcalfe, PhD, University of Calgary

    Tina Montreuil, PhD, McGill University

    Efrosini Papaconstantinou, PhD, Ontario Tech University

    Eli Puterman, PhD, University of British Columbia

    Rébecca Robillard, PhD, University of Ottawa

    Leslie Roos, PhD, University of Manitoba

    Robyn Stremler, PhD, University of Toronto

    Jane Thornton, MD, PhD, University of Western Ontario

  • Emily Cameron, Post-Doc, University of Manitoba

    Zahra Clayborne, Post-Doc, University of Calgary

    Makayla Freeman, MA, University of British Columbia

    Jasmine George, PhD, University of Victoria

    Sandra Hunter, PhD, University of Manitoba

    Mahtab Matin, PhD, University of British Columbia

    Samantha Micsinszki, Post-Doc, McMaster University

    Marcel van de Wouw, Post-Doc, University of Calgary

    Dana Watts, MSc, University of Calgary

  • Danielle L. Beatty Moody, PhD, University of Maryland

    Orfeu M. Buxton, PhD, Penn State University

    Royette T. Dubar, PhD, Wesleyan University

    Michael A. Grandner PhD, University of Arizona College of Medicine

    Girardin Jean-Louis, PhD, University of Miami

    Sally Staton, PhD, University of Queensland

  • Rachel Colley, Statistics Canada

    Marni Flaherty, Canadian Child Care Federation

    Karen Roberts, Public Health Agency of Canada

  • Drenusha Gaxherri

    Pamela Perez

Research Projects

The Sleep Equity team’s two-armed working hypothesis is that (a) people’s identities, location, and access to services interact to affect how well they sleep; and (b) there are a number of cultural and community-based resilience factors that may act as buffers against adversity. Based on this hypothesis and the principles of patient-oriented research, the team will assert that sleep priorities defined by individuals and communities, including Indigenous communities, will strengthen public health initiatives to improve the sleep of all Canadians.

The research program objectives are distributed across three research pillars that will work in parallel with strategic points of interaction throughout the project term.

  • In the Data Analysis pillar, a two-stage intersectional analysis of the datasets, including Indigenous health perspectives, that includes a post-analysis scoping review and community engagement to identify gaps will be conducted. (Leads:  L. Tomfohr-Madsen, T. Kendzerska, & S. Stranges)

  • As part of the Community Engagement pillar, a series of priority-setting workshops will be conducted with people with lived experience of sleep inequities, including Indigenous communities, creating a network of patient advisory groups and participating in knowledge exchange with Indigenous people.  (Leads:  E. Keys, C. Ou, & A. Shawanda)

  • As for the Public Health pillar, the aim will be to work in collaboration with public health agencies to improve data collection and surveillance related to sleep as well as influence public health policy related to sleep health promotion, childcare and multimorbidity. (Leads:  H. Pennestri & G. Reid)