Neighbourhood walkability and associations with mortality

One feature of the built environment that holds promise for promoting health is neighbourhood walkability. Highly walkable neighbourhoods are characterised by their ability to promote active living through a series of interconnected walking routes that can provide residents with access to a variety of destinations. Similarly, access to urban green spaces has been shown to have a number of health benefits. While a series of studies have demonstrated associations between walkable communities and increased participation in physical activity and development of chronic disease, few studies have assessed the impacts on mortality. This presentation will highlight recent findings on walkability and greenness on Canadian mortality while highlighting opportunities for future research.

Presenter: Dr. Paul Villeneuve

Dr. Villeneuve is an environmental and occupational epidemiologist, and received his PhD in epidemiology from the University of Toronto. He is currently a Full Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and the School of Mathematics and Statistics at Carleton University. He is an affiliate scientist at the Ontario Occupational Cancer Research Centre, and holds adjunct appointments in the Department of Public Health Science at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health at McGill University. Before joining Carleton, he was a Senior Research Scientist in the Healthy Environment and Consumer Safety Bureau at Health Canada. His research activities have focussed on estimating the impacts of a number of environmental and occupational exposures on human health such as: air pollution, diesel, radon, electromagnetic fields, cigarettes, radiation, and features of the built environment (greenness, noise, and walkability). He has led many record linkage studies where occupational or survey data been linked to national or provincial administrative health data and is currently investigating health effects among Canadian workers exposed to ionizing radiation. He also serves on the editorial boards of the Canadian Journal of Public Health, and Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention, and is chairing WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on the Occupational Burden of Disease Estimation.

The Occupational and Environmental Health Seminar Series is a self-approved group learning activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification program of The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. The series is also approved by Council of Professional Experience for professional development hours (PDHs) for members of the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors (CIPHI), and by the Canadian Registration Board of Occupational Hygienists (CRBOH) for Registration Maintenance (RM) points. For more information, please contact Victoria Arrandale (victoria.arrandale@utoronto.ca).

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