Abstracts presented at the 7th World Alliance for Risk Factor Surveillance (WARFS) Global Conference. October 16-19, 2011. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The 7th World Alliance for Risk Factor Surveillance (WARFS) Global Conference, hosted by the Public Health Agency of Canada, was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from October 16 to 19, 2011. Previous WARFS conferences were held in USA (1999), Finland (2001), Australia (2003), Uruguay (2005) and Italy (2007, 2009). WARFS is a global working group on surveillance under the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) It supports the development of risk factor surveillance as a tool for evidence-based public health, acknowledging the importance of this source of information to inform, monitor and evaluate disease prevention and health promotion policies and programs. The theme of the 2011 Global Conference was the role of surveillance in the promotion of health. The Global Conference had 146 registered participants, making it the second most attended WARFS conference in its history. Over the three days, participants attended oral and poster presentations from 30 countries. The conference would not have been possible without the hard work of the International Scientific Committee and the Local Organizing Committee. To highlight the importance and the significance of this conference at an international level, Chronic Diseases and Injuries in Canada (CDIC) is pleased to publish this supplementary issue, which contains 70 abstracts presented at the 7th WARFS Global Conference. In the spirit the Global Conference, this collection of abstracts brings together surveillance material on risk factors, chronic diseases, infectious diseases and injuries from around the world. By making these abstracts widely available, CDIC hopes to further the conference objectives through a continued dialogue between those interested in linking risk factor surveillance to health promotion.