McGill.CA / Department of Geography / People

Mylene Riva

Health geography

Associate Professor in the Department of Geography

Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Housing, Community and Health

Offices:
Burnside Hall, Room 419
Phone: 514-398-6331
Personal website
mylene.riva [at] mcgill.ca (E-mail)
Google Scholar Profile

Academic background

  • Banting Postdoctoral fellow, Laval University, 2012
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Health geography, Durham University (Durham, UK), 2011
  • PhD Public Health, University of Montreal, 2008
  • BSc Geography, University of Montreal, 2002

Research interests

I am a health geographer and population health researcher. I lead an applied research program that spans health geography and population health to understand housing and community conditions as structural determinants of health and as settings for intervention to promote health and well-being for Inuit, First Nations, urban and rural dwellers. I am committed to working with communities, organizations, and governments to provide rigorous scientific evidence that can be used to inform practice and policy. My research program is organized along four broad axes: Housing and the health and well-being of Inuit and First Nations; Developing theoretical and empirical frameworks to guide action on health and its determinants for Inuit and First Nations through population health surveys; Housing needs, housing interventions, and housing-related health inequalities in urban and rural areas; and Housing, energy, and well-being.

Some current projects

  • Energy poverty in Canada: Implications for the health and well-being of Canadians
  • Housing needs, healthy neighborhoods, and mental health
  • At Home in the North: New Partners for Northern Housing Security and Homes
  • Qanuilirpitaa? 2017 Nunavik Inuit Health Survey
  • Qanuikkat Siqinirmiut? Towards an understanding of southern Quebec Inuit health and wellbeing
  • FEHNCY - Food, Environment, Health, and Nutrition of First Nations Children and Youth
  • Pathways: Do community-based food security interventions influence use of community services, food security, social integration and health among new users?

Some recent publications

  • Riva, M., Kingunza Makasi, S., Dufresne, P., O’Sullivan, K., Toth, M. Energy poverty in Canada: Prevalence, social and spatial distribution, and implications for research and policy. Energy Research and Social Sciences. 2021; 81: 102237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102237
  • Myette, E., Riva, M. Surveying the complex social-ecological pathways between resource extraction and Indigenous Peoples’ health in Canada: A scoping review with a realist perspective. The Extractive Industries and Society, 100901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2021.100901.
  • Baron, M., Riva, M., Fletcher, C., Lynch, M., Lyonnais, M. C., & Sidi, E. A. L. (2021). Conceptualisation and operationalisation of a holistic indicator of health for older Inuit: Results of a sequential mixed-methods project. Social Indicators Research, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-020-02592-5.
  • Schiff, R., Buccieri, K., Schiff, J. W., Kauppi, C., & Riva, M. (2020). COVID-19 and pandemic planning in the context of rural and remote homelessness. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 1-4. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-020-00415-1.
  • Baron, M., Fletcher, C., Riva, M. Aging, health and place from the perspective of elders in an Inuit community. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology. 2020; 15: 1-21.
  • Hansen, C.B., Lytken Larsen, C.V., Bjerregaard, P., Riva, M. The effect of household crowding and composition on health in an Inuit cohort in Greenland. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494820929496.
  • Riva, M., Perreault, K., Dufresne, P., Fletcher, C., et al. Social housing construction and improvements in housing outcomes for Inuit in Northern Canada. Housing Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2020.1739233.
  • Riva, M., Fletcher, C., Dufresne, P., Perreault, K., et al. Relocating to a new or pre-existing social housing unit: significant health improvements for Inuit adults in Nunavik and Nunavut. Canadian Journal of Public Health. 2020; 111; 21-30.
  • Perreault, K., Riva, M., Dufresne, P., Fletcher, C., et al. Overcrowding and sense of home in the Canadian Arctic. Housing Studies. 2020; 35; 353-375.
  • Sohns, A., Ford, J., Riva, M., Robinson, B., Adamowski, J. Water Vulnerability in Remote Arctic Households. Arctic. 2019; 72: 215-335.
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