The Fraser Health Authority is hoping to gather input from local seniors for an online health and wellness survey.
The survey, titled My Health My Community, collects information about health status and lifestyle choices, (including smoking habits, fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity and stress) as well as levels of community involvement to establish a picture of population and community health.
"My Health My Community is an opportunity for us to learn how our lifestyles, our neighborhoods and our environment all come together to affect overall health and well-being," said Fraser Health's Dr. Victoria Lee. "As seniors make up an increasingly large percentage of our communities, their input into this survey will enable us to share the most up-to-date health and lifestyle information with local governments, health-care planners and community stakeholders and help them shape policies, programs and community services that lead to better health."
Respondents can complete the survey in either English or Chinese, and additional languages will be available at a later date. The online component will also be supplemented with in-person surveys to ensure a broad, representative range of people is included.
Fraser Health, the UBC Faculty of Medicine and Vancouver Coastal Health all helped develop the survey. The idea is to better understand how health and wellbeing are linked to where people live and what they do. The goal is to collect responses from two per cent of the population in the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health regions, and all residents are encouraged to participate whether they're healthy or not.
"My Health My Community will help us understand all of the determinants of health and wellness in our communities so that we can help shape healthier social, economic and physical environments," Lee said. "We'll also be able to identify what's preventing people from getting healthier, so we can work to improve their lives."
To participate in the survey, visit http://www.myhealthmycommunity.org. According to Fraser Health, the project will have strict security measures in place including data encryption and highly secure access systems, to safeguard personal information.
