Exploring the SOCIAL
side of heart health
Our work centres the stories and experiences of people to understand the social factors of cardiovascular health and disease.
Our Team
We’re a group of creative, dedicated researchers who are excited about making connections—big and small. We are an interdisciplinary bunch, with training spanning multiple fields, including education, community and public health, epidemiology, geography, history, psychology, and the medical sciences.
Our Research
We conduct qualitative and mixed methods research that prioritizes people’s stories, and lived experiences. We integrate perspectives from the social and medical sciences and the humanities to expand our understanding of heart disease.
Our Outputs
We communicate our research to the scientific community, but we LOVE sharing our work with patients, caregivers, clinicians, and the public. We work with these communities to build knowledge translation products that are accessible, relevant, with the potential for real impact.
What do we mean by social factors?
The World Health Organization defines social factors as the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life. These factors can influence heart disease risk and outcomes directly, or indirectly through people’s health behaviours.
Social drivers play a key role in cardiovascular health and disease, yet they are infrequently and inadequately studied. To develop effective solutions that reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease and bolster cardiovascular health, we must think outside the box.
Latest News from the
Social Connections Lab
GET INVOLVED
We love diving into the connections between people and their environments and how these can be leveraged to improve health and wellbeing. We are always looking for dedicated people to join us!