Variables Type of dwelling:  house  apartment First language learned at home:  French only  other then French only Region of residence perceived as prone to cold waves:  average or a lot  not much or not at all Region of residence perceived as prone to ice storms:  average or a lot  not much or not at all Region of residence perceived as prone to winter smog:  average or a lot  not much or not at all Using a car:  never  less than once a day  every day Using a remote car starter in winter:  without car  yes  no 1 Eastern Québec 87.4 % 1 12.6 % 96.0 % 4.0 % 71.6 % 28.5 % 17.8 % 82.2 % 42.6 % 57.4 % 9.1 % 33.7 % 57.2 % 9.1 % 34.3 % 56.6 % Northern part of southern Québec 78.8 % 21.2 % 95.0 % 5.0 % 81.4 % 18.7 % 9.4 % 90.7 % 35.9 % 64.1 % 8.0 % 25.3 % 66.7 % 8.0 % 49.0 % 43.1 % Region of residence Centre Québec South of of the City Montréal province region North of Montréal Montréal and Laval 76.0 % 24.0 % 96.2 % 3.8 % 78.4 % 21.6 % 20.4 % 79.6 % 56.0 % 44.0 % 7.8 % 30.4 % 61.8 % 7.8 % 26.2 % 59.2 % 67.2 % 32.9 % 93.4 % 6.6 % 81.5 % 18.5 % 20.5 % 79.6 % 42.2 % 57.8 % 14.6 % 25.4 % 60.1 % 14.6 % 34.0 % 58.2 % 73.8 % 26.3 % 86.1 % 13.9 % 81.5 % 18.6 % 29.1 % 70.9 % 69.6 % 30.4 % 10.7 % 28.4 % 61.0 % 10.7 % 25.3 % 64.1 % 85.0 % 15.0 % 85.3 % 14.7 % 80.7 % 19.3 % 24.7 % 75.3 % 64.3 % 35.7 % 8.4 % 26.5 % 65.1 % 8.4 % 31.2 % 60.4 % 38.4 % 61.6 % 60.8 % 39.2 % 81.9 % 18.1 % 46.9 % 53.1 % 63.0 % 37.0 % 29.4 % 25.6 % 45.0 % 29.4 % 16.8 % 53.8 % Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2009, 6 700 Table 3. Some characteristics of the respondents by region of residence: percentages corrected for stratified sampling. The total percentages for a given variable may not be exactly 100%, due to rounding to the closest decimal. To simplify the presentation, percentages below 2% for missing data have not been reported. However, no statistical differences were observed between the users and non users of a remote car starter for the adaptation of clothing behaviours to the weather report (e.g. clothing warmer than usual if cold warning) or for the observance of other preventive advice (e.g. remote car starter not to be used if smog warning).