My Health My Community survey data released
How many of your patients or clients smoke, eat fruits and vegetables daily, exercise regularly, or have someone to confide in?
Since the long form census is no longer mandatory and national health surveys can’t provide local data, VCH and Fraser Health launched a massive survey, the largest population health survey, in fact, ever in BC, to obtain these statistics about their residents. 33,000 people were surveyed and the results were released publicly this week.
This data is meant to help you, in your position at VCH, understand populations even better and plan future services. They will also help local governments and partner agencies plan services that can influence the social determinants of health.
Juan Gabriel Solorzano, Executive Director of Population Health says, “The Community Profiles produced by My Health My Community will give our conversations with municipalities a point of focus. The data will help us jointly identify the strengths and areas of opportunity in each community, as well as set priorities for action. Instead of relying on provincial or regional information, we will now be able to target local issues with a clearer understanding of what is happening in each community.”
Christina Tonella, Regional Manager, Tobacco Reduction Program says, “I will use the results to further target our efforts to those communities and populations with higher smoking rates and higher levels of second-hand smoke exposure.”
Claire Gram, Policy Consultant II, Population Health says, “I am in Powell River right now, with the our local medical health officer and a nursing lead, to launch our collaboration and we are using the survey data to help identify priorities for action with the city’s parks and rec staff. I will be doing the same for Squamish and the Sunshine Coast.”
Public Health is sharing the results with government staff, and partner organizations such as Doctors of BC, so as to help inform future planning decisions.
See the full survey results
This project aligns with VCH’s goals of innovating for sustainability and promoting better health for our communities.
What do you think?
How do you think the survey data will help you in your job? Let us know below.
Carole
I tried the link you provided (for how many people participated from each area) and I just get a 404 message, cannot see any data.
The link I tried was a Contact Us link on the website, it leads to a form that requires a user key. There is a link to retrieve a user key, it leads to a page that says the survey is closed. It still does this today.
I only looked at pages on the website, not from other media. The Central Coast is not mentioned so it does not seem as if it is part of the survey.
Tiffany
Also, we didn’t have sufficient sample size for a separate Central Coast profile, however, all the respondents from that area will have contributed to the Coastal Rural regional estimates as well as the Vancouver Coastal Health overall estimates.
You can see how many people responded from each area here
http://www.myhealthmycommunity.org/Portals/0/Documents/MHMC%20Survey%20-%20target%20progress%2008AUG14_2014%20(VCH%20web).pdf
Tiffany
First, sorry to hear about your email. What was the address you used?
Second, unfortunately we don’t have control over what the media report. We do have all areas’ survey results posted on the My Health My Community website. You can find all of VCH’s and Fraser Health’s results here
http://www.myhealthmycommunity.org/Results/CommunityProfiles.aspx
Carole
I participated in the survey, I don’t know how many others did from my area but I see that the Central Coast is not mentioned in a lot of the pages I have looked at so far. I tried to contact the survey people to ask about it but the link that was provided in the email yesterday did not go anywhere.