Health Survey Underway In Manhattan

Just more than 600 randomly selected addresses within Manhattan will be visited by representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the next few weeks as part of an annual effort to distill the nation’s overall health.

Manhattan this year is one of 15 counties nationwide selected to be part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a wide-ranging study by the CDC taking place through Sept. 19.

Representatives from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics will ask residents at those addresses a series of questions to determine their eligibility to take part in the survey, including about their race, gender and age.

Eligible participants who volunteer to take further part will then be asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding their occupations, eating habits, medical history and other subjects related to overall health.

A detailed health examination is then scheduled in mobile labs, where participants have their blood tested and their oral health screened, among other examinations. Participants are paid up to $125 and will be given free and confidential health and nutrition evaluations.

The findings provide “critical health-related information” on obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, the CDC said in a press release.

The survey’s collected findings are analyzed with a view to help health officials, doctors and legislators to develop health policies, programs and services, the CDC said. The collected data ultimately influences a range of health-related matters, such as air quality and the types of foods found on store shelves, according to the Center.

The assessment, underway for 55 years, is “the most comprehensive survey of the health and nutritional status of the U.S. population,” the CDC said.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey “serves as the nation’s ‘health check-up,’ going into communities to collect health information throughout the country,” the CDC director, Thomas Frieden, said in the release. “The survey is a unique resource for health information, and without it we would lack important knowledge about major health conditions.”

Manhattan last took part in the survey in 2000.