Kim Raine
My research program, Promoting Optimal Weights through Ecological Research (POWER) explores the social and environmental determinants of the emerging obesity epidemic. My team’s research explores the ways in which social conditions and people’s behaviours (particularly food and eating behaviours) interact to transmit obesity and chronic diseases through social means.
Although my expertise is primarily in qualitative methods, such as ethnography, I collaborate with colleagues who bring diverse quantitative methods to the team, so that we are able to explore how social factors such as policies, commercialization of food, and the built environment of communities where people live may invisibly structure people’s choices.
With knowledge of how social forces may be shaping the health of people and communities, my current research priorities are on intervening on the social conditions contributing to obesity and chronic diseases. My contribution to intervention development and evaluation includes conducting large-scale, community-based and population policy-level health promotion initiatives to address chronic disease prevention.
My philosophy has always been to make the healthy choice the easy choice, and this can best be accomplished if stakeholders are made aware of the relationships demonstrated through research initiatives and stimulated to act on them. Therefore, a priority of all of my research endeavors is an integration of practitioners and policy decision-makers into the research/ intervention team to facilitate rapid action.
Degrees
PhD, Dalhousie University, 1993
MA, Mount Saint Vincent University, 1988
RD, Victoria General Hospital, 1983
BSc, Mount Saint Vincent University, 1982
Awards
Applied Public Health Chair, Canadian Institutes of Health Research / Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, 2008 – 2013
Health Senior Scholar, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, 2005 – 2010
Health Scholar, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, 2000 - 2004
Selected Publications
Raine, K.D., Plotnikoff, R., Nykiforuk, C., Deegan, H., Hemphill, E., Storey, K., Schopflocher, D., Veugelers, P., Wild, T.C. & Ohinmaa, A. Reflections on community-based population health intervention and evaluation for obesity and chronic disease prevention: the Healthy Alberta Communities project. International Journal of Public Health. (In Press)
Raine, K., & Wilson, E. Obesity prevention in the Canadian population: Policy recommendations for environmental change. 2006. Canadian Clinical Practice Guidelines on the Management and Prevention of Obesity in Adults and Children. Canadian Medical Association Journal. 176 (8 Suppl):106-110, 2007.
Raine, K. Determinants of healthy eating in Canada: An overview and synthesis. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 96 (Supplement 3): S8-S14, 2005.
Paquette, M.-C., & Raine, K.D. The sociocultural context of adult women’s body image. Social Science and Medicine, 59(5): 1047-1058, 2004.
Travers, K.D. Reducing inequities through participatory research and community empowerment. Health Education & Behavior, 24(3):343-356, 1997.
Current Projects
Population intervention for chronic disease prevention: A Pan-Canadian program
Co-principal Investigator
funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Training Grant
Alberta Policy Coalition for Cancer Prevention
Co-principal Investigator
funded by Alberta Health Services
Alberta Healthy School Communities Wellness Fund/Evaluation
Principal Investigator
funded by Alberta Health and Wellness/ Alberta Education