Speak To Your Health! Community Survey
Principle Investigator(s): Daniel Kruger, PhD
Project Dates: 2003 to present
Funding: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Description:The Speak to Your Health! Community Survey project examines social determinants of health
to understand and monitor behaviors and attitudes from Flint
and Genesee County residents.
This bi-annual survey is designed by community, health department and university partners to understand and monitor community health and well-being and to promote changes that benefit Genesee County residents. The goals are to: 1) understand residents’ health-related behaviors and perceptions; 2) provide information for needs assessments and evaluations of projects; 3) identify community assets; 4) understand the associations between residents’ health-related behaviors and perceptions, social determinants, and health outcomes; 5) provide training opportunities; and 6) develop a community health agenda that is widely disseminated and democratic.
The goal of the survey is to put the findings to use for informing
interventions and documenting change, which will assist in
setting the research agenda from the community perspective.
This survey is not intended for basic research only.
The project
is unique in several ways including community ownership, the
connection to capacity building, a focus on how social justice
issues are linked to health behaviors and service utilization,
the plan to link survey data with existing data sets (e.g.
U.S. Census data), and using the survey data for training
community residents and students. The Genesee County Health
Department will also benefit from the project because survey
data will be used to monitor progress related to the their
5-year strategic plan. The project is innovative in that it
combines and complements both quantitative and qualitative
methodology.