Synthesis and summary

Falls among seniors are a major public health problem. We estimate that approximately 30% of people aged 65 or over fall every year, with serious consequences at individual, family and social levels.

A number of effective interventions have been developed to prevent falls among the elderly, and physicians will be asked to include them in their practice. Therefore, it is essential to draw up and disseminate falls prevention practice guidelines that are based on recent scientific data…

In the autumn of 2007, the Association des victimes de l'amiante du Québec (AVAQ – a Québec association for asbestos victims) and the Ministère du Développement durable, de l'Environnement et des Parcs du Québec (MDDEP – Québec ministry of sustainable development, the environment and parks) published studies on the asbestos concentrations measured in indoor and outdoor air in Thetford Mines. The findings motivated the public health authorities in Chaudière-Appalaches and…

The first People Assessing Their Health (PATH) Project was conceived in the mid-1990s during a time of health system restructuring in Nova Scotia, when a certain amount of planning and decision making related to health services was being devolved to the regional and community level. The goal of the project was to provide a means for people in selected communities within the Eastern Health Region to identify, define and assess all aspects of health in their communities so that they would…

By its very nature, screening is characterised by administering a test to presymptomatic or early symptomatic individuals who may benefit from a more effective intervention if it is performed before the usual time of diagnosis.

Far from being a trivial intervention, screening can lead to significant consequences to the people screened. Therefore, before offering screening to workers, its effectiveness and the predominance of benefits over disadvantages must be demonstrated at the…

Today, the links between poverty and health are well-established (Phipps, 2003) and the resulting inequalities in health have proven to be persistent (Whitehead & Dahlgren, 2007). Indeed, the population groups with the worst health status are materially underprivileged and socially excluded (De Koninck et al., 2008), leading many analysts to single out poverty as one of the primary determinants of health.

In 2002, the Government of Québec passed An Act to Combat Poverty and…

Today, the links between poverty and health are well-established (Phipps, 2003) and the resulting inequalities in health have proven to be persistent (Whitehead & Dahlgren, 2007). Indeed, the population groups with the worst health status are materially underprivileged and socially excluded (De Koninck et al., 2008), leading many analysts to single out poverty as one of the primary determinants of health.

In 2002, the Government of Québec adopted An Act to Combat Poverty and…

Public health actors are increasingly being called upon to base their decisions on the best available knowledge. Various knowledge translation strategies have therefore been proposed as a means of drawing together the world of research with that of decision making (Mitton et al., 2007).

Yet, knowledge translation still faces many challenges: research is not always valued as an input in the decision-making process; research is not always relevant to the issues faced by public…

Public policies of various governmental sectors can influence, directly or indirectly, the health of the population. Whether they be policies related to transportation, environment, income, education, child-care, or social housing, these can all impact the determinants of health. As a consequence, decision makers are increasingly being called to adopt healthy public policies; that is, policies which have integrated a preoccupation with population health.

However, adopting healthy…

The most common definition of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is the one set forth by the European Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1999 in what is known as the “Gothenburg consensus paper.” HIA is presented as “a combination of procedures, methods and tools by which a policy, program or project may be judged as to its potential effects on the health of a population, and the distribution of those effects within the population” (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 1999).

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