Article content

By Kevin Lam and Jean Wang

Since John Snow mapped out the large cholera outbreak in 1854 to where people lived in London, it’s been known that where we live, work and play strongly influences health. The way our cities and towns are built plays a large role in many of the health conditions Canadians develop.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Opinion: Our neighbourhoods influence our health Back to video

Cities like Montreal and Vancouver have been working to create better cycling infrastructure and public transit to improve the quality of life and health of their citizens.

Is it enough?

We need a systemic collaboration between physicians, public health departments, developers and urban planners to help design cities that can keep us healthy.

Let’s take obesity as an example.

Among Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation (OECD) countries, Canada has one of the highest prevalence rates of obesity — an alarming one in five Canadian adults is affected. Despite all Canada is doing to address the factors that contribute, many public health goals are nowhere near close to targets. Ninety per cent of Canadian children don’t reach the physical activity recommendations despite physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyles being flagged as a priority focus for the Public Health Agency of Canada.