Scott Leatherdale

Biography

Dr. Scott Leatherdale is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health, University of Waterloo, University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, Canada.

Research Interest

Dr. Scott Leatherdale Research work focuses on advancing a systems science approach to primary prevention activities, developing and evaluating population-level health interventions across multiple risk factor domains, and creating research infrastructure to facilitate large population studies in chronic disease prevention. My work is purposefully designed to actively engage numerous stakeholders at multiple-levels (regional, provincial, national), and is designed to have an impact on improving the health of large segments of the Canadian population. The core foundation project for my current program of research is the COMPASS study; the world’s largest and most comprehensive longitudinal school-based primary prevention project. Each year, COMPASS collects longitudinal data from around 45,000 grade 9 to 12 students attending 89 secondary schools in Ontario and Alberta. The purpose is to evaluate how ongoing real-world changes in programs, policies, or built environment resources within or surrounding schools are related to changes in youth risk factors [tobacco use (including e-cigarettes), obesity, poor diet, physical inactivity, screen time, alcohol use, marijuana use, bullying] over time. Every year, more than 100 different changes take place that our large team of researchers and trainees are currently evaluating. Our team then takes this new evidence of what programs or policies work and we feed that information back to each participating school annually with customized tools to inform them of the best prevention interventions specific to their school population.