CDC study team based at Bryan Whitfield through April 20

Neatly lined up in the parking lot behind Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital are four trailers that hold the promise for continued health improvement in the United States.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. The information it finds impacts future health and well-being for American residents.

George Dixon, study manager for the Marengo County analysis, heads a team of some 50 field office staff, field operatives, technicians and doctors. The team, one of three in the nation, stay for nine weeks at a location before moving on.

They will be headquartered in Demopolis until April 20. The team works 48 weeks of the year, with two weeks off in the summer and winter.

The United States is divided into 15 sections, and each year a county is chosen from each of those them, Dixon explained. This year Marengo County was selected from its section.

Before the team arrived, designated households in the county received letters inviting them to take part in the study. Team members visited each home to take an initial survey and, if they qualified, asked one or more members of the household to travel to the trailers mobile unit for an in-depth physical examination and more intense questioning.

Altogether about 600 county residents have been contacted, each one representing some 65,000 people across the county. “We are getting a very good response,” he said. “This is an area where most of the people are receptive to what we have. They are very happy to see us.”

Not everyone agrees to take part, but Dixon said, “Realistically I expect to get between 450 to 500 people through the mobile center.”

Rural counties are more rarely visited by the teams. Dixon said the challenge for teams working in areas such as Marengo County is getting to the people they need to see. The recent flooding in parts of the county made it especially difficult to reach residents. Many participants have no access to transportation, so NHANES makes sure they can get to the exam site.

Once the exams are finished, each person goes over the results with the staff physician. Otherwise, no one else knows the outcomes since all identifying material is stripped from the information, said Dixon.

There are benefits to taking part, he continued. The tests conducted by the team are done for free. The same tests could cost a patient up to $4,000. Each person taking part also will be paid up to $125.

The health and nutrition surveys first began in 1960 but became a full-time program in 1999, Dixon said. NHANES surveys “set the standards for nutritional values.” Data from the research led to food labels that are more easily read and understood. They also had had an impact on everything from air quality to vaccinations, from low-fat and “light” foods to the current study of hearing loss in young people that might be attributed to the use of ear buds.

The data also help determine the number of people in the country who have a range of health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes and other conditions.

The information is used to develop public health policies, design health programs and services and expand health knowledge for the nation, especially as its residents grow older.

Dixon couldn’t reveal where the team goes after working in Demopolis. He would only say their next stop is “north of here.” It’s all part of the confidentiality of the survey.

“That’s a part of the reason why people don’t know about NHANES,” he explained. Unless the team has been in their area or they have taken part in another survey, the program is largely unknown.