Nashville health officials say it’s time to take the city’s temperature. They’re launching a county-wide survey of more than 12,000 residents to get a baseline view of health-related behaviors, chronic conditions and preventative health care practices.
This is the first community health survey conducted since 2000. In the last 18 years, the city’s population has increased by 23 percent. And former Sen. Bill Frist, who started a nonprofit called NashvilleHealth, says that the results will help everyone understand the current needs.
“These data will be critical to better understanding the health needs of our city and establishing a baseline from which we can all measure the effectiveness of our interventions and collective programs moving forward,” Frist says in a statement.
Broader
national surveys — which are not as reliable at the county level — show Davidson County lags behind most neighboring counties in smoking, obesity and sexually transmitted diseases. Frist has contrasted that standing with the concentration of health care companies in the city.
“It’s a real irony, a cruel irony, that the health of our own population is poor,” he says.
The surveys are fairly lengthy with 150 questions and will be mailed out to the randomized group at the end of the month, in both English and Spanish. Residents can respond online or by mail, and there are cash incentives to encourage completion.
A total of 3,000 completed interviews are expected. Early results should be in by the end of the year. Researchers plan to have enough responses to get reliable health statistics on six sub-regions of the county, though not all the way down to zip code level.
The Survey Research Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago is conducting the study, which is expected to cost around $200,000. The project is being paid for by a broad range of mostly health care companies, including Amerigroup, BlueCross BlueShield and HCA. The Metro Health Department is also helping administer the survey.
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