Recorded presentation

Charon Gwynn, PhD and Lorna Thorpe, PhD. New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth Street, CN-6, New York, NY 10013, 212-788-4520, maya@nchapman.com

Background: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) provides important public health and nutrition examination data nationally; no similar entity exists at local or state levels.

Methods: In late 2002, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) initiated formal discussions with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) regarding the feasibility of conducting a community-based HANES in NYC. The aim of the survey is determine prevalence of important health conditions in the NYC adult population, particularly diseases and conditions requiring a physical examination or serological test. These include key non-communicable conditions directly affected by physical activity and nutrition, such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes (and impaired fasting glucose), BMI, and central adiposity. Face-to-face interviews include questions on dietary habits and physical activity.

Results: The NYC HANES will be conducted in Summer 2004. Dietary questions focus on vegetable and fruit consumption, intake of red meat, poultry, and fish, as well as frequency of dining out. In preparing survey content, we identified a lack of informative local nutrition indicators that are rapid, easy to administer, and have meaningful national targets. NYC experience in designing and conducting the survey may be useful to share with other local entities aiming to collect nutrition and examination data in the future.

Conclusions: Development of community-based HANES initiative needs to be coupled with careful assessment of community program goals and relevant indicators. National nutrition targets pertinent to public health departments are under-developed.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Articulate what key nutrition indicators are useful in local public health surveys, as well as what biological measurements are most useful in examination surveys
• 2. Understand the capacity needs for conducting community HANES surveys at local health departments
• 3. Specify areas in need of improvement for guiding local public health programming

Keywords: Nutrition, Community Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Employed by New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Recorded presentation