Synthesis and summary

The following summary report details policies and programs in Canada that have had some measure of success in reducing health inequalities.

The National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy asked researchers at a research centre on health inequalities, Centre Léa-Roback, to report on programs and policies in Canada whose results have been evaluated using current medical evidence-based standards, including an evaluation of the quality of published evidence used in clinical…

The usage of the concepts designating the different types of initiatives we have termed “integrated governance” is remarkably variable in the academic and grey literatures that concern them. To provide some situational clarity and to establish more consistency in usage, this glossary strives to define the terms pertaining to this family of concepts.

To this end, the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP) has identified or drawn inspiration from definitions…

The concept of built environment refers to the human-constructed aspects of the living environments of populations. Together these constructed elements form an important part of human habitats, in that they affect the manner in which the places we inhabit are organized and populated. This document presents a reference framework to contextualize the concept of “built environment” while linking it to the actions of public health authorities in Canada.

The living conditions of…

Some Canadian regional health authorities have fully committed to partnerships with not-for-profit (NFP) organizations for the purpose of promoting healthy public policy. Some are seeking to go further in this direction and others have not yet embarked on this course. This document is part of a series of texts documenting existing partnership practices and analyzing their contributions in terms of public health. The aim is to allow authorities to weigh the benefits of such partnerships for…

Obesity's increasing prevalence is of concern because of its impacts on the population health and its associated costs. To promote healthy public policies, this scientific advisory documents the influence of economy-based agri-food policies that can affect the population's diet and weight. To this end, the following economic measures are reviewed: agricultural subsidies, trade policies, agricultural research and development programs, agricultural promotion programs, agricultural initiatives…

In recent decades, the world of work has undergone a number of major transformations, which in turn have had considerable impact on both work organization and employment relationships. These changes have often been introduced for economic reasons in the context of increasingly globalized markets. However, it is becoming more and more apparent that they sometimes have negative impacts on workers’ health and safety. This survey was carried out as part of Québec’s Minister of Labour’s…

This document is a summary version of the report, Public Policies on Nutrition Labelling: Effects and Implementation Issues – A Knowledge Synthesis, produced by the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP). For readers who would like to learn more about the knowledge synthesis method used as well as the knowledge gathered and the full bibliographic references, we invite you to consult the full report.

Nutrition labelling on pre-packaged foods and on…

Public policies affect population health. Public health actors are called upon to document this phenomenon, in particular, by producing knowledge syntheses. To meet the needs of decision makers, a knowledge synthesis must consider not only the effects and the equity of the public policy being studied, but also the issues surrounding its implementation (cost, feasibility, acceptability).

Drawing inspiration from political science, from literature on evidence-informed decision making…

The built environment, composed of all the buildings, spaces, and products that have been created or modified by people, has undeniably an impact on our health and quality of life. This first issue of the TOPO collection documents, in a nutshell, the relation between the built environment and physical activity amoung young people. It addresses the following questions: "What opportunities provided by the built environment promote physical activity by young people?", "What characteristics of…