Purpose
In order to appropriately plan, deliver and evaluate local health programs and policies, an accurate understanding of community health status and health needs is required. While national and provincial health surveys provide a general picture of health of the population, finer grained, community-level health information is needed, so that specific needs within our diverse communities can be understood and addressed with programming and education outreach.
Overview
To address this knowledge gap at the community-level, the Web-based Health and Lifestyle Survey initiative aims to develop an online tool for residents of the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health regions. These residents will be encouraged to share information about their health and lifestyle choices, and their impressions of the health of their neighbourhoods.
The information generated from this initiative will give health providers, planners, and decision makers reliable population health information that can be used to improve public health policy, programming within the community, and to inform decisions about resource distribution to best meet local health needs. The vision is to contribute to the development of policies that reduce inequities and improve the health and well-being of residents in the Vancouver Coastal Health & Fraser Health regions and, should the initiative extend to other regions over time, across the province of British Columbia.
Status (Spring 2015)
The My Health My Community survey gathered health and wellness data from 33,000 Lower Mainland adults in 2013-2014.
Analysis of this data is currently underway with a series of reports at a municipal and regional level being planned for release in 2015.
The first analysis of the 28,000 Metro Vancouver respondents examined the association between mode of commuting and health. The findings are summarized in the Transportation and Health in Metro Vancouver report.
For more information about results and findings as they are released, please visit the My Health My Community website.
Add your voice to better personal and community health in your neighbourhood, and share this initiative with your family, friends and colleagues too!
Contact
For more information, please contact Michael Lim