NATIONAL HEALTH SURVEY UNDERWAY IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the most comprehensive survey of the health and nutritional status of the U.S. population is coming to Miami-Dade County, FL beginning on November 23, 2014. Why Miami-Dade County?

All counties in the United States have a chance to be selected for the NHANES and this year, Miami-Dade County is one of 15 counties that was selected to be part of this initiative. NHANES provides important data on public health problems from a national perspective.

Each year, 5,000 lucky residents across the nation have the chance to participate in the latest National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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

“This is a one-of-a kind survey to help us better understand health-related issues across the United States.  It’s a program that is hitting the road to gather valuable public health information. We all benefit when communities are healthy and when families are healthy,” said Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County Administrator Lillian Rivera RN, MSN, PhD.

For the past 55 years, NHANES has had a prominent role in improving the health of all people living in the U.S. Public health officials, legislators, and physicians use the information gathered in NHANES to develop sound health policies, direct and design health programs and services, and expand the health knowledge for the nation. NHANES findings provide critical health-related information on a number of issues such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In addition, NHANES data are used to produce national references and are used to create standardized growth charts for pediatricians across the country.

Everyone in the U.S., from babies yet to be born to the elderly, has benefited from the information gathered by NHANES.  The comprehensive data collected by NHANES has a far-reaching and significant impact on everything from the quality of the air we breathe, to the vaccinations you get from your doctor, to the emergence of low-fat and “light” foods on the shelves of your grocery store.  Now, a NHANES team of health professionals, nutritionists and health technicians is heading toward Miami-Dade County and wants everyone who is lucky enough to be selected for the survey to agree to participate.

Residents will have an invitation-only opportunity to participate in NHANES. Individuals have been selected at random (in a process similar to taking names out of a hat) for NHANES, and include all ages, races, and ethnicities in order to represent the U.S. population as a whole. Respondents first participate in a health interview conducted in the respondent’s home followed by a health examination that takes place in one of three mobile examination centers.

While no medical care is provided directly in the mobile examination center, a report on physical findings is given to each participant along with an explanation from survey medical staff. All information collected in the survey is kept strictly confidential and privacy is protected by law.