POSTER PRESENTERS
Natasha Verhoeff - Health Sciences (Winner)
Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder's Experiences with Online Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is comprised of a spectrum of neurodevelopmental disorders that impact behaviour and communication. Education for children and youth with and without ASD was disrupted across the globe by COVID-19. Since children and youth with ASD develop differently and typically receive more educational support than most children and youth, online learning during the COVD-19 pandemic has unique effects on them. This scoping review investigates children and youth with ASD’s experiences with online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in hopes of identifying supports for them and stakeholders in their lives such as their caregivers and teachers.
Claire Dawe-McCord - Health Sciences
Stakeholder Dialogue: Age of Transfer from Pediatric to Adult Healthcare, and Transition Practices and Policies in Canada
In this project a group of individuals from across Canada were gathered to discuss what the current rules and regulations were surrounding transferring youth from pediatric to adult health care settings, what challenges this youth may face, and how we may improve this process for youth in the future. A stakeholder dialogue was planned in collaboration with and co-facilitated by the Patient and Family Advisory Council from CHILD-BRIGHT’s READYorNot Brain-Based Disabilities Project. The top three policy recommendations were implementation of: A transition planning program that starts a few years before transition and builds self-competencies; A more flexible age of transfer since chronological age does not necessarily indicate developmental age or readiness; Holistic transition that includes social and educational factors.
Ya Jing Liu - Health Sciences
Developmentally Appropriate Tools for Children with Hemophilia (DATCH)
DATCH is a unique student-led project which involves multiple students from various backgrounds who work on developing different educational resources for children with hemophilia. We identify areas where there are potential gaps in available resources and aim to close these gaps by creating valuable resources that children and parents can refer to for support. We work closely with a group of health care professionals and we ensure that the resources we design are accessible and inclusive. Later, we assess these resources in a study component as well.
ORAL PRESENTERS
Julia Labricciosa & Katherine Taplin - Health Sciences (Winners)
The Intersection of Food and Housing Insecurity on Pregnancy and Infant Health Outcomes: A systematic Review
Redistributional policies aimed at promoting equity often have shortcomings such that, even in high-income countries, pregnant people experience food and housing insecurity. Our objective was to systematically review the existing literature to examine the extent to which food and housing insecurity during pregnancy intersect to affect maternal and infant health outcomes in neighbourhoods experiencing vulnerability in high-income countries. Locally in Hamilton, prevailing processes of skyrocketing housing prices combined with wage stagnation mean that many pregnant Hamiltonians experience housing insecurity. Findings from our review can be used to inform evidence-based multi-level policy targets and recommendations that reflect local priorities in Hamilton.
Vaibhav Arora - Health Sciences
Deriving Normative Data on 24-Hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring for South Asian Children (ASHA)
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a leading cause of preventable deaths all over the world. Ambulatory Blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is a method used to detect hypertension in children and adults in which blood pressure is assessed over a 24 hour period. It has numerous advantages over office-based blood pressure measurement, but its use is limited because normative data for pediatric populations was sourced more than 20 years ago from a homogenous Caucasian population in Germany. This study aims to establish normative ABPM data among a large cohort of South Asian children living in Ontario and British Columbia.
Anwar Subhani - Health Sciences
Evaluating the Training Needs for an Epilepsy Education Program by Assessing the Beliefs and Attitudes of Families with Children Impacted by Epilepsy
A lack of readily accessible epilepsy programs has mental health repercussions for those recently diagnosed with epilepsy. A virtual training platform called “Knowledge to Empower” is being developed to allow families to connect with and learn about their child’s epilepsy. The queries and training needs of diverse patient groups must be addressed to ensure the platform’s personalization and success. This study assessed the training needs, beliefs, and attitudes towards epilepsy through a questionnaire for families, taking into account epilepsy severity, time of their child’s diagnosis, and religiosity.
