Overview

The Institute for Community Health (ICH) developed and implemented a behavioral risk factor telephone survey to better understand the health issues facing residents of Cambridge and Somerville. The questionnaire was based on a survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and used a random digit dial methodology.

Survey questions for the 2002 Cambridge and Somerville BRFSS focus on variety of opinions and practices regarding health status, health care access, asthma, diabetes, cancer screening, exercise, tobacco, alcohol and drug use, and HIV/AIDS. For the 2002 Cambridge and Somerville BRFSS, the ICH has included questions which focus on the health concerns potential risks of Cambridge and Somerville residents. Respondents are asked questions about their community, television viewing, weight control, fruit and vegetable consumption.

The Cambridge and Somerville BRFSS consists of telephone interviews conducted with randomly selected adults from randomly selected Cambridge and Somerville households. In total 20,396 sample records were generated and 1,978 interviews were completed. The survey data are weighted to Cambridge and Somerville 2000 census data in order to provide population-based estimates.

The surveys were completed in 2002 and analyses are ongoing. The ICH presented an overview of the BRFSS for the city of Cambridge at a breakfast meeting for policy makers at Mount Auburn Hospital on April 4, 2003. Working closely with our partners and the Cambridge Public Health Department, the ICH hopes to stimulate dialogue that will help frame future health policy in these communities.

Results from the city of Somerville were presented at a breakfast held at the Somerville Senior Center on May 9, 2003. The ICH is in the process of presenting the results of the survey to numerous groups interested in community health including public health boards, local providers, and community coalitions. In addition, the Cambridge and Somerville BRFSS data was used for the annual Cambridge Public Health assessment and Somerville Well-Being report.

In response to requests, specific analyses from the Cambridge-Somerville BRFSS are being conducted as well. Topics have included: screening for some types of cancer; access to health care and domestic violence; prevalence of some chronic disease, such as diabetes, asthma and other respiratory diseases; comparison of census and BRFSS neighborhood level data for various topics; percentage of children who were screened in Somerville and required dental care; and smoking, alcohol and drug use in Somerville.

The ICH hopes to repeat the survey in the future to determine how health issues have changed in Somerville and Cambridge.