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National health study exams to begin
BOARDMAN
Free, detailed medical examinations of selected Mahoning County residents begin this week in a cluster of trailers at Southern Park Mall as part of a study that will inform national health policy.
The study, which documents the prevalence of various diseases and long-term health trends among Americans, is the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mahoning County is one of 15 counties in the country chosen this year to participate in the NHANES project that measures the nation’s health.
This is the first time in the survey’s 55-year history Mahoning County is participating.
“It’s great that they get to participate in the most comprehensive health survey of the United States,” Jenni Echols, study manager, said of Mahoning County residents.
The exams are limited to those who have been pre-selected into a random sample of participants.
“The random sampling is to make certain that the people that they select are representative of the nation. It’s all done by computer algorithms,” explained Patricia Sweeney, Mahoning County health commissioner.
“I’m excited about it. It’s nice to be involved in a national sample – a snapshot view of what’s going on in the country using our area as a model,” said Joseph Warino, city manager of Canfield, a community from which some study participants have been drawn.
NHANES hopes to interview 500 selected county residents, and give medical exams to as many of those people as agree to them, Echols said.
About 5,000 randomly selected people across the country will be included in the study, with participants compensated up to $125 for their time and travel expenses.
Participants will receive up to $4,400 worth of free health tests, including blood and urine tests, a bone-density scan, a liver ultrasound, an oral health exam and a hearing test.
Results are shared with examinees, who may share them with their physicians, but the information is kept confidential at the individual level.
The cluster of trailers, where physical examinations of selected participants will continue through early August, is in the northeast corner of the mall parking lot at U.S. Route 224 and California Avenue.
The trailers are connected by enclosed passageways.
The first trailer contains reception and body-measurement rooms; the second has physician’s and dentist’s offices and interview rooms; the third contains rooms for hearing, bone density and liver ultrasound tests; and the fourth contains a laboratory and blood-drawing room and a staff office.
Among the topics NHANES gathers information on are: obesity, diabetes, nutrition, kidney disease, infectious diseases, oral health, physical fitness and functioning, sexual behavior and sexually transmitted diseases, environmental contaminant exposures and medications and dietary supplements.
In the 1960s, results of this survey spurred public health officials to warn about the link between elevated cholesterol and heart disease risk.
When NHANES began, one third of adults had elevated cholesterol. Today, fewer than one-fifth have this problem.
In its early years, the national study also found Americans had elevated lead levels in their blood, prompting Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to phase out leaded gasoline.
By the 1990s, the study found only 4 percent of Americans had elevated blood lead levels.
“It’s an adventure. You’re just traveling. You’re going all over the country and seeing the entire United States. If you’re a gypsy, then this is the job for you,” said Steve Trumbore of Emmaus, Pa., a health technologist, who is on the road with the study 48 weeks a year.
“We’re doing something important for the nation,” he said of the collection of health and body measurement information in the study.
Body measurements from the study establish growth-chart norms for children, he said. Designers of clothing and airline and car seats rely on the body-measurement data from the study to design their products, he noted.