Chapter 1 Introduction

The Project Big Life Planning Tool (PBL Planning Tool) is a web-based application to assess the burden of health behaviours (smoking, diet, physical activity) and the potential health impact of public health preventive strategies in Canada.

The tool was developed in response to requests from public health departments to create, replicate, and update health status reports such as Public Health Ontario’s Seven More Years report which examined the impact of health behaviours on health outcomes: mortality and life expectancy.

We hope you find the tool helpful for your research and policy planning, including the development and evaluation of population-based health interventions.

The tool can help you to:

  • Determine who in the Canadian population is at risk of dying
  • Predict the number of new deaths in different Canadian populations
  • Determine how much a risk factor contributes to a health outcome
  • Assess the health benefits of potential interventions

Examples questions the tool can answer

The Project Big Life Planning Tool can answer the following types of questions:

  • What is the life expectancy of people in British Columbia across different levels of educational attainment?
  • How many deaths would be prevented if people in Ottawa biked as much as people in Copenhagen?
  • What is the burden of smoking on life expectancy in Canada?
  • How many deaths would be prevented if everyone in Winnipeg increased their daily exercise by 10%?

The tool, which is well-suited to calculate health burdens for a range of social and demographic groups, provides a resource to examine inequities associated with health behaviours.(Manuel et al. 2016) The ability to examine the impact of different types of preventive scenarios is also supported &mdash including population strategies that have a small incremental change in health behaviours for a broad target population or high-risk strategies with a larger change in health behaviours that target a smaller number of high-risk people.(Manuel D 2012)

How it works

The wide range of enhanced surveillance applications is made possible through the tool’s use of multivariable predictive algorithms. All algorithms used by the planning tool were developed and validated using data routinely collected by Statistics Canada and provincial health agencies, and the algorithms have been published in various journals. More information about the algorithms can be found in the Background, Key concepts and Appendices.

Why should I use the tool?

  • It is easy and flexible to use.

    • The user only needs to upload their data and choose which calculation to run.
    • It can be used to assess the future risk of a health outcome.
    • It can be used to assess the effectiveness of different intervention scenarios (e.g., policy) on a health outcome.

  • It is robust and flexible.

    • It can be used to examine health outcomes in a range of social and demographic groups.
    • It generates accurate predictions.
    • The tool’s algorithms have been published in peer-review journals, validated in the Canadian population for a wide range of populations, and are publicly available.

  • It is private.

    • Loaded data remains on your computer and is not uploaded or sent anywhere.

D Bibilography

Manuel, D. G., R. Perez, C. Sanmartin, M. Taljaard, D. Hennessy, K. Wilson, P. Tanuseputro, et al. 2016. “Measuring Burden of Unhealthy Behaviours Using a Multivariable Predictive Approach: Life Expectancy Lost in Canada Attributable to Smoking, Alcohol, Physical Inactivity, and Diet.” Journal Article. PLoS Med 13 (8): e1002082. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002082.

Manuel D, et al. 2012. “Predictive Risk Algorithms in a Population Setting: An Overview.” Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 66 (10): 859–65. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2012-200971.