In the summer of 2014, the Public Health Branch of the Estrie region conducted its first public health survey, the Enquête de santé populationnelle estrienne (ESPE). A total of 8,737 adults from the Estrie region took part in the survey, 800 of which live in Le Granit. Recruited at random, this representative sample of the Estrie population responded to a telephone survey covering a variety of physical and mental health issues. The second phase of the ESPE was carried out in the fall of 2015 and sought to better understand the Estrie population’s health and well-being, along with its possible link to the July 2013 railway disaster. In total, 1,600 adults were recruited randomly in 2015 to take part in this large-scale telephone survey. These included 800 from Le Granit (261 in Lac-Mégantic), and 800 from elsewhere in the Estrie region (Généreux, Perreault, Petit et al., 2016). In the fall of 2016, Prof. Danielle Maltais of the UQAC, in collaboration with the Public Health Branch of the Estrie region, co-directed a third survey, similar in nature, as part of a large-scale, five-year study (2015-2020) financed by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). This effort also involved a telephone survey and focused on residents of the Le Granit area, including 387 adults from Lac-Mégantic and 413 from elsewhere in the area, all of which were chosen randomly. Every year since the 2013 tragedy, a sample of 800 residents from Le Granit responded to a series of questions. The results of this third survey are presented in the public health bulletin that you can find below.
