January 22, 2003

Community survey to study local health, environment

An Antioch College professor has developed a community health survey that will collect data about Yellow Springers’ health and their health concerns. The survey will also try to understand how the local environment may affect residents’ health.

The results of the survey will create a “baseline of data” so that in 10, 20 or 30 years others can judge whether local residents’ health is improving or declining, said Ann Filemyr, a professor of communications, journalism and environmental studies at Antioch who is the director of the Yellow Springs Community Health Survey.

Filemyr and those working with her on the project, including two Antioch students, are now preparing to distribute the survey over the next nine months. Filemyr believes that this will be the first health survey conducted in Yellow Springs.

She said that she wanted to organize the project to help the community better understand local health issues and to gauge the impact environmental problems, such as groundwater contamination, may have on the health of Yellow Springers and the environment.

The purpose of the survey, Filemyr wrote in her grant proposal for the project, is “to provide support for public education on the interrelationship between human health and the health of the local environment.” She also wrote, “I see this project as an opportunity for the citizens of Yellow Springs to become more informed and involved in the interlocking issues of environment and health.”

The two-year project is funded by an $18,000 grant from YSI Incorporated, which had to provide $95,000 for local environmental projects as part of an agreement that settled a lawsuit the state of Ohio filed against the company for improper handling and disposing of hazardous wastes.

People can participate by conducting surveys or answering its questions, if they live in the 45387 ZIP code. Survey organizers will hold a training session on Saturday, Jan. 31, for volunteers who want to conduct surveys.

“We definitely need folks in town to show up for the training,” Filemyr said in an interview. She said that surveying would be organized in a flexible manner to fit volunteers’ schedules.

Training volunteers will ensure that the survey questions are asked in a consistent manner, said Twyla Clark, a fourth-year Antioch student who is serving as a research assistant on the survey. It’s a “useful way to have everyone on the same page,” she said.

Over the next nine months, Filemyr said, organizers hope to “survey as many residents as we can,” possibly up to 500 households. The surveys will be conducted door-to-door and in well-visited locations such as the Senior Center, The Emporium and the Farmers Market.

Next month, the Community Children’s Center will participate in the project in an effort to survey the adult family members of the center’s students. The school’s director, MJ Richlen, said that the center, which has an enrollment of about 62 children from an estimated 55 families, is a “prime place” to assess the health of many Yellow Springs children.

The center has seen an increase in the number of children with asthma, allergies and behavioral problems, Richlen said. These health issues may be genetic or a result of how children are nurtured, she said, “but we did feel the potential for some kind of environmental damage was possible.”

In November, project organizers will analyze the survey results. Next spring they plan to hold a health summit where they will present the survey results and offer a forum for people to discuss the information.

The survey will be compiled in a software program as well as organized in a form that will be available at the Yellow Springs Library and the Bryan Community Center. The data will also be made available if others want to use it or just review it, Filemyr said.

Filemyr said that she would like to have 15 to 20 local residents volunteer to conduct surveys. Another 30 to 35 Antioch students are also volunteering, most of whom are participating through three classes: environmental journalism, which Filemyr teaches; ecology and feminism, taught by Collette Palamar; and African policy, taught by Jahwara Giddings. Filemyr said that the three teachers have incorporated the survey into their class curriculums. Other students may conduct surveys through Antioch’s community service program.

The survey is a “nice chance for Antioch College students to be involved, not just in the training but by participating with people in their surveys,” Clark said. Filemyr said that this also influenced her, noting that the survey is a way to “build a bridge between the college and the town.”

Organizers said that the size of the survey — it includes more than 56 questions over 14 pages and could take about 15 to 20 minutes to answer — is critical to developing a comprehensive picture of the health of villagers and the community. Clark said that “to create a baseline of data, which is the ultimate goal, the size of it is very important.” She added that while the survey may be preliminary, it is thorough.

Filemyr developed the survey last fall with the help of several people, including Joyce Morrissey, the health advocate at Antioch, and an epidemiologist at the University of Cincinnati. Filemyr said she researched other surveys to find the “best questions” for certain issues, and held three meetings, including one with local health-care providers, to gather public input. Many people who attended the meetings were concerned or interested in health issues, complementary or alternative medicine and health insurance coverage, Filemyr said. “One thing that I didn’t know that people wanted to know about is health insurance,” she said. “It came up in all three meetings.”

The survey is divided into seven sections ranging from questions about people’s general health and reproductive health to health care and lifestyle issues to the local environment. The survey is anonymous, though it will track answers by neighborhoods.

Filemyr compared the health survey to the survey on affordable living in Yellow Springs organized and published by the Yellow Springs Men’s Group, and said that gathering information “can be the basis of action.”

Providing information and then deciding on courses of action or community projects will be a critical part of the environmental summit in 2005, she said. For instance, Filemyr said, if a cancer cluster is found in a neighborhood, it could indicate a “pattern” and local residents might work to improve the local environment.

The idea of conducting a project based on public service motivates Filemyr. “We do have an obligation to future generations for issues of environmental health,” she said.

—Robert Mihalek