Population health in Canada: issues and challenges for policy, practice and research

The population health movement has gained prominence in Canada and elsewhere with policy makers, program planners and researchers taking note that health is strongly influenced by factors that lie largely beyond the health-care system. The development of population health in Canada was the focus of the National Conference on Shared Responsibility for Health & Social Impact Assessments: Advancing the Agenda held May 2-3 1999 in Vancouver, Canada. A longer version of this paper was distributed to conference participants to provide some common knowledge and vocabulary. It also introduced and discussed definitional, normative, logistical, political, methodological, structural and resource considerations with respect to furthering the population health agenda in Canada.