Full professor
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
Faculty of Medicine

Xavier Trudel is an occupational health epidemiologist and associate professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine. Xavier Trudel’s research activities focus on the epidemiology of psychosocial stressors in the workplace, their effects on cardiovascular and mental health, and their prevention. His team’s work involves strong multidisciplinary collaboration, bringing together expertise in epidemiology, occupational health, medicine, biostatistics, and health economics.

The research is conducted within large prospective cohorts. One of these cohorts consists of 9,188 employees from 19 public and parapublic sectors in Quebec, followed for 24 years. Xavier Trudel’s team is currently conducting three research projects funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) aimed at evaluating:

  • The costs of cardiovascular and mental health problems attributable to psychosocial stressors in the workplace.
  • The proportion of cases of cardio-metabolic diseases (hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases) attributable to unhealthy lifestyle habits and psychosocial stressors in the workplace.
  • Improving the prediction of cardiovascular risk resulting from considering workplace risk factors.

These research projects involve the use of innovative methods including simulation of preventive interventions, risk prediction through machine learning, and methods based on causal inference, to account for the temporal sequence of exposure and disease occurrence.

Xavier Trudel’s team also carries out several activities to disseminate research results and transfer knowledge. The team’s work has contributed to the development and revision of two innovative standards currently used by several hundred organizations in Canada to improve the health of workers: “the Prevention, Promotion and Organizational Practices Contributing to Health in the Workplace (BNQ 9700-800/2008) and the Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (CAN/CSA-Z1003-13).”

Xavier Trudel is a member of the Scientific Council on Organizational Prevention of Psychosocial Risks Related to Work (CS-RPS) of the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec. He is also involved in research and knowledge transfer activities of the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.