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Canadian Social Determinants Urban Laboratory (CSDUL)

Funded by The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

Since 2017, Dr. Charles Plante has led the UPHN Research Group in advancing the measurement of health inequalities in Canada’s cities using existing data. This initiative, known as “Measuring Trends in Health Inequalities in Cities,” received $750,000 in 2023 from CIHR to establish the Canadian Social Determinants Urban Laboratory (CSDUL, pronounced si-jil). The CSDUL project will develop concepts, variables, and codes to help analyze how social factors impact health in cities across Canada. The team plans to release CSDUL in 2027.



In 2021, we released the report Urban Income-Related Health Inequalities in Canada: City-Level Results in Health System Use and Self-Reported Indicators, which has framed our work ever since. The report found that income-related health inequalities in Canada’s cities were prevalent for every indicator we examined, but they were also very different between cities. Additionally, health inequalities have not tended to improve since the early 2000s, although there were exceptions. Much of the team’s attention has now turned to assembling data and creating tools for unpacking what drives city-level differences in health inequalities.

Download the Report:

Research Team

The team is co-led by Dr. Plante and Dr. Cory Neudorf. It consists of many collaborators in academia, at Statistics Canada, the Canadian Institute for Health Information, and several rotating knowledge users across the country. Drs. Plante and Neudorf supervise a team of students, helping them advance this work at the University of Saskatchewan. It includes three Ph.D. students, an M.Sc. student, and a medical student.

Recent Highlights

  • A proposal has been submitted to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to expand CSDUL’s capacity by exploring how social assistance policies affect health and well-being.
  • A protocol paper for CSDUL is currently being prepared, with publication on medRxiv expected by the end of 2024.
  • The CSDUL prototype is scheduled for completion in early 2025, with initial analysis planned to start the same year and a public launch targeted for 2027.
  • New team members have joined nodes across the country to advance the development of social determinants variables, including political economy, environmental factors, social capital, material circumstances, and healthcare access.
  • The core team in Saskatchewan continues to lead CSDUL’s development and coordinate engagement with health researchers and system leaders nationwide.

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