LYNCHBURG, Va (WFXR) — The CDC has randomly selected the City of Lynchburg and Campbell county for its National Health and Nutrition Examination survey. The important survey helps guide public health policy, and gives residents a chance to learn more about their own health.
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) has been around since the 1960’s. The program works to help identify different health issues people in the United States may be facing, as well determine factors that may impact people’s lives such as dietary habits, air quality, vaccinations, and more. NHANES field director George Dixon says if you do get invited, your participation is extremely important.
“If you’re selected to participate in the survey this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and it gives you the chance to learn more about your own health and then also help with the health of the U.S.” said Dixon.
Each year, 15 counties across the united state are selected at random to participate in the survey and the mobile examination centers stay in each place for around nine weeks. Participants are also chosen at random, and it is invitation only.
“You coudn’t possibly take every person every American to the doctor to get a health check up so what NHANES does is basically taking a call to the nations health, its the ability to select 5,000 people across the U.S. to have a better assessment of what are the health needs of the nation,” said Survey Manager Victor Barajas.
Barajas says by randomly selecting thousands of people, the CDC is able to get a better understanding of the health of different people throughout the country. He says each person selected can represent up to 65,000 Americans with similar demographics.
“It gives us a better idea of what are the needs of the nation what are the things we need to address, how can we have better nutritional guidelines, and things like that,” said Barajas.
He also says participants receive $4,500 worth of examinations at no charge and people are even compensated for their time– he says those participating are making a huge difference for our country.
“They get all this really valuable information, but most importantly its information that we can use at the national level to have a better sense of what are the health trends and what are the health needs of the nation as a whole,” said Barajas.
