About 500 Orange County residents will be chosen for free full medical exams through the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Orange County has been selected this year as one of 15 counties chosen to have residents participate in the annual national survey. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sponsors the health survey, which will give information to studies for medical conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure.
Four mobile medical exam stations have been installed on the Baptist Hospital Orange parking lot off Strickland Drive. The program will be in the county until January 20, according to media information from the CDC.
In addition to the medical exams, participants will be paid up to $125 for their time spent for the exams.
Each year since 1957 the surveys have been made of people randomly chosen through census data to give an overview of health of citizens along with their dietary and exercise habits. The survey in Orange County is not related to Tropical Storm Harvey’s flood last year.
The CDC said all counties in the U.S. are divided into 15 groups based on characteristics. One county is then chosen from each to the groups.
Each county is then divided into 20 to 24 smaller groups. Every smaller group will include a large number of households. Then within the each group, about 30 households are selected. Some of the households have been notified by mail of their selection.
The next step is to have professional interviewers go to the selected households. The interviewers will have federal identification. They will ask for information for each individual in the household. The questions will include basic information like age, race, gender, and general income level.
After collecting the surveys, the CDC uses a computer algorithm to select individuals. A household may have some, all, or no members being selected.
CDC information said each individual chosen for the survey represents about 65,000 citizens.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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