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Behavior Survey to begin 4/15/03 (Port Angeles, WA) -- Starting today, you may receive a phone call from a surveyor asking about your health behaviors. The Clallam County Department of Health and Human Services is sponsoring a community wide telephone survey of health status and local community health needs. The information collected in the survey will be used to find out about the health of adults in Clallam County. The findings will be be used to develop the health programs and services that meet the needs of North Olympic Peninsula residents. The 2003 Clallam County Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System will begin today and continue for a full year. A total of 600 randomly selected adults aged 18 years and older will be interviewed throughout the County over the next year. Professional health interviewers working for a survey company with offices in Bremerton and Seattle will make the calls. Calls will be made primarily during the evening hours and may occur on weekends. The interviewer will ask to speak to a randomly selected adult. Even households with unlisted phone numbers may be called, since the phone numbers are picked randomly by a computer and not from the phone book. The interview will last about 20 minutes for each adult. Clallam County Health and Human Services staff spent time gathering community input and support for the health topics included in the local survey. Questions in the survey have to do with health behaviors such as access to health care services, exercise, smoking and cancer screening. Answers to the interview will be kept strictly confidential and no one will know who has responded to the survey. Cooperation with the survey is voluntary but officials say the information can only be useful if those residents who are called, choose to participate. |