February 2009 - Program Updates

Chronic Disease in Ontario and the Need for Integrated Action

by Shawna Scale, Manager, Ontario Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance

In Ontario, common risk factors — including tobacco and alcohol use, poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, mental health, and obesity — combined with socioeconomic and cultural conditions that affect health collectively impact chronic disease rates. The social, economic, and personal costs of chronic disease are enormous, and increasing as the population ages. Today, one in three Ontarians has one or more chronic diseases. Almost two-thirds of Ontarians over 45 have a chronic disease; of those, 55% have two or more. Moreover, at east 60% of our health care costs are due to chronic disease (Thinking Like a System, 2006).

The Ontario Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance

The Ontario Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance (OCDPA) is the collective voice on chronic disease prevention. Formed in 2003 to address the urgent need for integrated action and collaboration, it is a collaborative of over 30 leading health-related organizations and networks working together to focus comprehensively on healthy living for Ontario. The OCDPA believes Ontario’s groups and organizations, whose work relates to chronic disease and its prevention, should think and act like a system. The OCDPA focuses on advancing provincial policies and practices through planning and coordination, public policy, advocacy, and knowledge exchange. This results in:

  • Well-planned chronic disease prevention investments;
  • Relevant public policies;
  • Efficient knowledge creation and exchange.

Ongoing Knowledge Exchanges Activities

The OCDPA raises awareness, informs and engages its stakeholders in chronic disease prevention related issues through:

  • Weekly email updates on recent news, reports and events;
  • Bi-monthly newsletter on relevant issues;
  • Regular OCDPA membership meetings to enhance knowledge exchange;
  • Workshop presentations to engage stakeholders.

Prevention Messaging

Through its membership, the Ontario Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance has identified chronic disease prevention "messages" to focus attention on the most important priorities in chronic disease prevention and to promote action on these priorities across Ontario.

The OCDPA believes that the best way to achieve success in addressing policies that promote overall health, mental health, healthy eating, physical activity, low-risk drinking and smoke-free living is through collective action. It is the hope of the Alliance, with and through its members, that by working together on common priorities and by coordinating prevention activities across Ontario, focus will shift towards prevention of chronic disease and Ontarians will be healthier through better policies and practices, in future.

Please visit our website to download a copy of Common Messages: Supporting Collective Action on Chronic Disease Prevention across Ontario.

Learnings from Tobacco Control to Address Other Chronic Disease Risk Factors

In March 2008, the OCDPA produced the Moving the Healthy Eating and Active Living Strategy Forward in Ontario: Priorities for Action and Recommendations – A Consultation Document report which identifies key system elements from the success of the Smoke-Free Ontario Strategy and their application to Ontario’s Action Plan for HEAL and proposes four priorities for action:

  • Establish a HEAL Expert Panel to recommend a comprehensive agenda for action within a chronic disease prevention and management framework;
  • Establish a HEAL research and policy engagement agenda for Ontario;
  • Develop a comprehensive HEAL knowledge exchange plan for Provincial and Regional Stakeholders;
  • Develop a plan to build regional capacity to implement effective HEAL programs and policies.

OCDPA has formed a workgroup to continue efforts in this area. A priority paper and a backgrounder document are currently being developed. The priority paper will provide the reader an overview on one of the OCDPA’s priorities — "Applying Learnings from Tobacco Control to HEAL Efforts as well as High Risk Alcohol Consumption with an emphasis on Dose of Best Practices and Evaluation". The backgrounder document will examine challenges and opportunities of transferring learnings and successes seen in tobacco control to the areas of healthy eating, active living, and high-risk alcohol consumption. Both papers will be available in Spring 2009.

Letter on Investment to Reduce Childhood Obesity

The OCDPA utilized the recommendations from OCDPA’s “Moving the HEAL Strategy” report as a framework to develop a plan to address and prevent childhood obesity in Ontario.

In support of the Ministry of Health Promotion’s plan to address childhood obesity in Ontario, the OCDPA submitted its Plan to Address and Prevent Childhood Obesity in Ontario, a letter to the Ministry of Health Promotion which recommends that part of the $10 million investment be used to develop and address systems elements to prevent childhood obesity.

The OCDPA acknowledges that childhood obesity is not the job of a single organization or sector; rather, stakeholders — such as OCDPA member organizations, the public health system, other non-government organizations and networks, as well as the government — must collaborate to develop and implement a coherent, coordinated plan of action to address this issue provincially. The Alliance recommends that part of the $10 million investment be used to develop and address systems elements to prevent childhood obesity, including the creation of a vision, developed by the government with key experts, to inform childhood obesity agendas in policy, research, knowledge exchange, and capacity building. Full details, including OCDPA recommendations to address policy and programming in Ontario, can be found within its submission.

Joint Initiative on Early Environmental Exposures and Chronic Disease Prevention in Ontario

The Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment (CPCHE) and OCDPA are collaborating on a two-year joint initiative on early environmental exposures and chronic disease prevention in Ontario, with support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The project will build the relationship between the children’s environmental health sector (through CPCHE) and the chronic disease prevention sector (through OCDPA) in support of positive changes, in policy and programming, to assist in the prevention of chronic diseases associated with early exposures to toxic substances in the environment or in consumer products. Information related to this project can be found on the CPCHE website.

For more information on the Ontario Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance and its work, please visit our website. We can also be reached by email (ocdpa [at] opha.on.ca) or by phone (416-367-3316 x 225).