Built environment

This document begins with a review of how housing can influence the health and quality of life of its occupants. It then presents the findings on the impact of housing on the health of the Québec population during the COVID-19 period. As a response to this impact, this report proposes strategies for improving housing conditions and reducing social inequalities in health, starting with specific…

The purpose of this document is to provide guidelines to support the use of parks and green spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. It reviews the main health benefits of green spaces and the basic principles to be respected to reduce the risk of spreading the virus in these areas. The document also presents promising initiatives put forward by municipalities in Québec, Canada and elsewhere in…

• There are many sources of noise, which increase the difficulty of mitigating the effects. Some examples are noise from road and air traffic, as well as rail noise, noise from port (harbor) facilities or from construction sites.
• Land-use planning and management are some effective and key noise control and mitigation measures. These measures are planned and implemented by…

• In Québec, more than half (52%) of secondary school students had not eaten junk food for lunch during the week preceding the study, while a little less than half (48%) had eaten junk food for lunch one or more times.
• Close to 40% of students in Québec public secondary schools have access to at least two fast-food restaurants within 750 metres.
• Consumption of junk…

Highlights :

• Most scientific studies show meaningful connections between the characteristics of the built environment and the eating habits, physical activity and body weight of young people.
• The factor that appears to be most closely associated with students' weight and eating habits is the density of convenience stores and fast food restaurants in the vicinity of…

This briefing note introduces the road diet, an engineering technique that reallocates space on a street or road for other uses when they are over-built and have excess lanes. In what follows, we will present a definition, some study results and practical implementation considerations for road diets.

When applied with consideration for contextual details, it is generally agreed that…

This document is the final one in a series of five documents based on a literature review published in 2011. The four previous documents compared the effects of two approaches to urban traffic calming – the black-spots approach and the area-wide approach – on four determinants of health: road safety, air quality, environmental noise and active transportation. In this document, we will examine…