Objectives: In Canada, non-communicable diseases account for 88% of all deaths, most of which could be prevented through a healthier diet, regular physical activity (PA), smoking cessation, and reduced alcohol consumption. This study aims to estimate the number of deaths that could be prevented or delayed if (1) the average behaviors of Canadians aligned with recommendations for healthy behaviors, or if (2) the average behaviors of Canadians equaled those of residents in the provinces with the healthiest behaviors. Methods: We used the Preventable Risk Integrated Model macrosimulation model to estimate the number of deaths that could be prevented through population-level behavioral changes. Information on Canadians’ health behaviors was obtained from the most recent edition of the Canadian Community Health Survey (2015), which reported diet (from 20 487 participants) as well as PA, alcohol consumption, smoking, and sedentary time (from 110 095 participants). Age-specific and gender-specific mortality data for 2015 were obtained from Canadian Vital Statistics, and 95% uncertainty intervals (UI) were calculated through Monte Carlo analyses. Results: Following behavioral recommendations could have prevented 30 756 deaths (95% UI, 25 867 to 34 965) in 2015. Improving Canadians’ lifestyles to match the behaviors of the healthiest provinces could have prevented 6758 deaths (95% UI, 5062 to 8382). Improvements in fruit and vegetable intake alone could have prevented most of these deaths. Most preventable deaths were attributed to cardiovascular diseases. Conclusions These findings show that even modest, realistic lifestyle improvements at the population level could substantially reduce the burden of chronic disease in Canada.

BACKGROUND: By current estimates, it takes 17 years to adopt a new evidence-based practice (EBP) intervention. Nursing efforts to increase EBP adoption typically focus on education. But, there is a research gap in that there is a lack of evidence to support that education impacts the adoption of evidence-based practice. This study explored factors associated with adopting quantitative pupillometry (QP). METHODS: This longitudinal, retrospective study used registry data to calculate QP usage rates between 2015 and 2021. Events and interventions hypothesized to increase EBP adoption were identified through stakeholder interviews and literature search. Events were categorized as: conference presentations, publications, education, new study sites, QP adoption on other nursing units, equipment purchase, and policy changes. Scatterplots and Spearman's Rho were used to examine the relationship between time and usage rate of QP. Odds ratio analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between the selected event types and changes in usage rate from month-to-month. RESULTS: Using 74,428 QP observations from 3,976 patients, there was a significant positive relationship between usage rate of QP and time (r = .642, P < .0001). However, there was no statistically significant odds of any event-type (alone or in combination) impacting the rate of QP adoption. CONCLUSION Time was the only independent variable significantly associated with an increase in EBP adoption for this intervention. Common methods used to accelerate nursing adoption of EBP may have limited effect.