The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wants to question Sacramento residents on their nutrition and health, including giving them a medical exam, asking nutrition-related questions, and paying them up to $125 compensation for adults. Check out the February 5, 2012 Sacramento Bee article by Grace Rubenstein, "Residents to be questioned on their nutrition, health."
Will you be participating in the current CDC's The NHANES - National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey? Why did the federal government select Sacramento to emphasize for the purpose of providing an in-depth but (confidential as far as individuals questioned and examined) of the entire nation's nutrition levels and general health?
Most of the publications are of value to anyone researching nutrition and health. For example see the CDC's data, Consumption of Sugar Drinks in the United States, 2005–2008.
Check out National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2003–2004 [PDF - 156 KB]. Or you can peruse last year's information, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) DNA Samples The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is a program of studies designed to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States.
The survey is unique in that it combines interviews and physical examinations. Will you be one of the selected participants in Sacramento? Have you been selected to take part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey?
Between now and April 1, a survey team from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will interview and examine selected residents on their health, beliefs and behaviors. That's the issue: selected residents. And who in Sacramento will be selected by which criteria?
The survey will collect data that will identify health issues. How many Sacramentans will be selected to help the government develop policies and programs to address various health problems that arise in the medical exam the participants will take? The information helps the CDC understand more about how personal characteristics like attitudes, beliefs and cultural background can influence health outcomes.
How will your information be used without identifying you, since the information is confidential as to your personal information? Your data (or your child's) will be used as part of the standard growth charts used by pediatricians to determine how a child's size measures up against the norm.
The question is who will be selected since residents participate by invitation only. The CDC selects them through a complex formula based on U.S. Census data, the goal being to recruit a group that represents the U.S. population as a whole. Do you represent the entire US population?
How the process works is that surveyors interview participants in their homes. Next comes the health examination. You don't get examined in your home or in your doctor's office. Your medical exam will be in one of the project's mobile trailers.
Regardless of what your health exam reveals, you won't receive any direct medical care. For your time and participation you will receive a report on your medical exam results and compensation for your time of up to $125 for adults. Now the question remains, who in Sacramento will be invited to participate?
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