Survey teams are already in Hillsborough County for a national health survey that includes residents from just 15 counties across the country.
The teams are expected to be working in Hillsborough through Feb. 14, gathering data for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, said Sherwin Bates, senior study manager on the study for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
All counties across the country have a chance to be selected for the study, which involves 5,000 people across the nation each year, Bates said.
The survey is the most comprehensive survey of the health and nutritional status of the U.S. population. It provides important data on public health problems from a national perspective.
The survey is conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the CDC.
The survey has been conducted for 55 years, and the information it yields is used by public health officials, legislators and physicians to develop health policies, design health programs and services, and expand the nation’s health knowledge.
Survey participants will include people of all ages, races and ethnicities, in order to represent the U.S. population, as a whole.
The target number of sample participants in Hillsborough County is 600, Bates said.
“The person who is knocking at the door will identify themselves with a badge, a photo ID,” Bates said.
“They’re going to ask some basic household questions, demographic questions, to determine eligibility. Quite literally, every single household has a different algorithm, so we get a good cross-section of the entire United States,” Bates said.
The survey “serves as the nation’s ‘health checkup,’ by going into communities to collect health information throughout the country,” Jennifer H. Madans, acting director of the National Center for Health Statistics, explained in a release.
Respondents first participate in a health interview conducted in the respondent’s home, which is followed by a health examination that takes place in the mobile examination center.
The household interview typically takes between 30 minutes to 90 minutes, Bates said.
The mobile exam can take up to four hours, to give participants plenty of time to ask questions.
“We’re not going to rush anyone through. We want to be very detailed and thorough, in the answers we give to the respondents,” Bates said.
Participants receive up to $125 in compensation, plus transportation expenses for driving to the mobile exam.
“If they need child or adult care, we would pay for that,” Bates said. “If they speak a language that we currently don’t support in the field, we’ll hire an interpreter to interpret that language. Then, what we do is make sure that that interpreter will meet them at the mobile exam center.”
While no medical care is provided, survey participants receive a report on the physical findings the same day, and a more detailed report within eight to 12 weeks. That report has an estimated value of $3,500, Bates said.
All information collected in the survey is kept confidential and privacy is protected by law.
The survey data has affected the nation’s population in areas ranging from air quality, to vaccinations to low-fat foods now offered in grocery stores.
National health and nutrition survey
Survey participants should know
- All information collected is kept confidential, as required by law.
- Participants receive a free and comprehensive health and nutrition evaluation.
- Participation helps develop and evolve national health policies and programs.
- Participants receive compensation for time and travel, up to $125.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
How do survey results affect real life?
- The first survey back in the 1960s led public health officials to sound the alarm about the link between high cholesterol levels and the risk of heart disease. Today, people routinely keep an eye on their cholesterol. When the survey began testing, one-third of adults had high cholesterol. Today fewer than 1 in 5 adults has high cholesterol.
- It was data from this survey that provided the first clear-cut evidence that Americans had too much lead in their blood. This led Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency, and others to phase out the use of lead as an additive in gasoline, and the results have been remarkable. By the 1990s, the survey found that only 4% of Americans had too much lead in their blood. But, it remains a problem for certain groups, especially poor children living in old houses in cities where lead paint was once common. The survey helps our public health agencies pinpoint where lead remains a problem.
- Growth charts developed by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey are found on the walls of pediatricians’ offices and clinics across the United States, and around the world. With new information on younger babies, the current charts have been expanded and improved.
Published December 11, 2019
