Survey to Ask 4,400 County Residents about Health and Risk Factors

Frequently Asked Questions

The Nassau County Department of Health will conduct the county’s first-ever comprehensive community health survey beginning this fall. Entitled, “The Nassau County Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (NCBRFSS)”, its purpose is to provide information about the risk factors and health problems affecting local communities today and to use this information to help improve public health programs for the future.

David M. Ackman, M.D., M.P.H. explains: "Individual doctors monitor the vital signs of patients. The Department of Health, with this unparalleled survey, is substantially improving its monitoring of the vital signs of every community in the county. The information we collect will document today's burden of disease, and will determine the effectiveness of our public health interventions, both now and in the years to come."

The anonymous and confidential telephone survey will begin the week of October 10th, and will be completed by the end of January, 2006. The 20-minute phone calls, conducted in both English and Spanish, will survey 4,400 randomly-selected residents. Questions will include those on:

• Risk behaviors (e.g. smoking, diet, exercise),
• Diseases and conditions (e.g., asthma, diabetes, depression), and
• Preventive care (e.g. blood pressure screenings, mammograms, colon cancer screenings).

The survey will be repeated in future years and will allow the Department of Health to monitor changes in disease patterns over time, and to evaluate the effectiveness of public health programs.

Professional health interviewers from ORC Macro will conduct the survey. Telephone numbers will be picked randomly by a computer and are not from a phone book, so unlisted numbers may still be called. The telephone calls will be made primarily during evening hours, and may occur on weekends. The interviewer will ask to speak to an adult, 18 years or older, in the house.

If your telephone number is selected and you are called at an inconvenient time, you may ask the interviewer to call you back at a more convenient time.

Results of the NCBRFSS will be released before the end of the year and will be widely disseminated to government agencies, elected officials, universities, health care and community organizations, as well as any interested county residents. The highest standards of health survey research, set by the federal government and major research universities, were used to design the interview process, as well as to select the households and the person to be interviewed. Most of the questions in these surveys are identical to those in important state and national surveys, so that the health of Nassau County can be compared to that of the state and the nation.

More information about the survey can be found at www.nassaucountyny.gov/health.

The Health Department’s 2005 Community Health Assessment will soon be available on the department’s website and, later, in hard copy. The Community Health Assessment report presents key health measures and statistics. It presents local data for local action, focuses on health disparities and demonstrates a commitment to better understand the state of the county’s health for use by planners, health professionals and other decision makers.

If you receive a call about the survey or have any questions or concerns, you may call the Department of Health weekdays between 9:00 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. at 516-571- 2500.