Family health

Alcohol use and the many social and health issues associated with it are public health concerns. The impact of alcohol depends primarily on the total volume of alcohol consumed and the pattern of drinking, particularly drinking a large quantity on a single occasion (WHO, 2009).

This work has allowed us to develop a current profile of binge drinking among youth in Québec who drink alcohol and to examine the trends and changes over time in this consumption pattern from 2000 to 2012.

These initial results indicate that just under a third of young drinkers in Québec engaged in binge drinking in 2011-2012. This phenomenon affects males much more than females, regardless of age.

Although many young drinkers started to drink excessively at around the age of 18, this behaviour was already present in young males of 14-15 years and in young females of 16-17 years of age. However, it is young adults of 22-23 years of age who are most likely to binge drink…

Electronic cigarettes are new devices with which users mimic the gestures and produce the feeling of smoking without exposing themselves to the toxic by-products of tobacco combustion. While many experts consider them to be a less harmful alternative for smokers' health than conventional cigarettes, others are concerned that they could renormalize smoking and provide a gateway to conventional cigarettes for young people.

This study is one of the first to assess electronic cigarette use among secondary school students in Québec.

The findings indicate that most students have heard of electronic cigarettes. In 2012-2013, 34% of secondary school students had ‘ever used' electronic cigarettes and approximately 6% had used them in the past 30 days. These estimates are high compared with those in the United States and suggest that youth in Québec have access to this product. Almost one third of secondary school students who had never tried electronic cigarettes did not…

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 the school.
• The characteristics of the built environment that have the greatest influence on physical activity are accessibility to recreational facilities and, to a lesser extent, the walkability of the neighbourhood.
• Just over half (58.9%) of public schools in Québec are located less than 750 metres from a fast food restaurant.
• Close to two-thirds (63.6%) of public schools have at least one convenience store within a radius of 750 metres.
• Half (51.2%) of public schools have at least one recreational facility less than 750 me…

In early adolescence, young people adopt lifestyle habits that could play a determining role in their future health. At this early age, they begin to develop their independence, while continuing to be influenced by their sociocultural environment. Sociocultural factors have an impact on eating habits and physical activity, and this is even more true in adolescence when youth are in the process of learning and experimenting.

The results of the Ados 12-14 study (see box, page 3) show that the promotion of healthy lifestyle habits among young Québec adolescents should take into account the influence of family and peers, as well as youth's perceptions of contradictory messages concerning lifestyle habits.

The purpose of the Joint Intervention Initiative for Early Childhood Development (JIIECD) is to support the development of the children of Québec, improve their school readiness and enhance their success in school. The first phase involves conducting the Québec Survey of Child Development in Kindergarten (QSCDK). The second phase consists of implementing actions that may support child development on the basis of the results obtained in the first phase. Several partners are collaborating in this initiative: the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS), the Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport (MELS), the Ministère de la Famille, the organization Avenir d'enfants and the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ).

The intervention working group [JIIECD intervention support phase], a committee of partners from the project and from the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ), has tasked itself with supporting the planning of actions by consid…

The publication of the second issue in the “Youth Smoking Survey” (YSS) series in 2010 showed the trends in cigarette and cigar or cigarillo use among students in Québec in 2006-2007 (Lasnier and Cantinotti, 2010). The purpose of this document is to update the smoking profile of Secondary 1 to 5 students using data collected in 2008-2009 and 2010-2011. Indicators are presented for the proportion of students who smoked cigarettes in the 30 days preceding the survey, the proportion of smokers by smoking status, as well as the proportion of students who used alternative tobacco products (cigars, cigarillos and little cigars) in the last 30 days.

• In 2010-2011, the prevalence of cigarette use among Secondary 1 to 5 students was higher in Québec (12%) than in the rest of Canada (9%).
• Unlike the situation in 2006-2007, cigarette use was more prevalent than cigar or cigarillo use among secondary school students in Québec as a whole in 2010-2011.
• …

Over the years, specific efforts have been made to reach young people so that, on the one hand, they do not become tobacco-dependent, and on the other hand, they stop smoking. Several interventions have been developed specifically for them, as for example the youth coalition against smoking, the De Facto campaign, and the iQuitnow Website for adolescents. The few data available suggest that smoking cessation services such as the quit smoking centres, and the iQuitnow telephone helpline and Web site attract few adolescents (Montreuil, 2012; Tremblay and Roy, 2013), which is not at all surprising, since young people say that their favoured means for quitting smoking is to do it alone or with a friend (Dubé et al., 2009; Kischuck et al., 2004). According to the most recent data of the Québec Survey on Smoking, Alcohol, Drugs and Gambling in High School Students collected in 2008, close to six young smokers in ten reported having tried to quit smoking duri…

This tool was developed to support the collective decision-making process concerning actions to promote total child development. It is designed for local and regional actors seeking to take an objective look at the services available in their areas based on the outcomes of the Québec Survey of Child Development in Kindergarten (QSCDK). This tool can be used to conduct a self-evaluation based on the ten conditions for success set out in the document Conditions for Success of Actions to Promote Total Child Development: State of Knowledge.

The tool may be used when undertaking general and concerted planning of actions within a given territory, fine-tuning an existing plan or evaluating the adequacy of a new action. It may also be useful for matching the ongoing adequacy of your actions against the conditions for success.

The issue of work-family balance (WFB) has not been given much attention in terms of its impact on health. Therefore the purpose of this advisory is to examine WFB policies likely to foster the health of working mothers and fathers. The conceptual framework is innovative in that the analysis incorporates the impact of WFB difficulties on health, the role of the neighbourhood, working conditions and public policy in the work-family-health equation.

The statistical portrait of WFB in Québec reveals how the sizeable increase in the proportion of women in the labour market, particularly mothers, has contributed to the emergence of WFB as an issue, similar to what has occurred in many jurisdictions around the world. According to the Québec data, time conflicts seem to be a significant contributing factor in the stress experienced by working parents.

Current research on WFB confirms the results of a literature review on the topic conducted by the INSPQ in 2005. WFB problem…

The energy drink market has grown phenomenally in recent years. These products are said to enhance energy levels, physical alertness, and performance, and, as a result, are used by consumers for various reasons on various occasions. According to the literature, the reasons given by consumers include: staying alert, boosting energy, increasing motivation, improving sports performance, and partying all night. Some consumers also drink them because they taste good, to quench their thirst, for their perceived health benefits, and to improve the taste of alcoholic beverages.

Recent data have been published on the consumption of energy drinks by high-school students in Québec. In addition, the legal framework regulating these drinks in Canada has recently been changed. Drawing on this new information, this update of the TOPO summary published in August 2011 reports on the extent to which young people are consuming energy drinks and the level of health risk.