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Question: I am seeking a health survey that can be used in a neighborhood contaminated by a nearby chemical factory. This survey would collect information on illnesses as well as observations, e.g., vapors, etc. Do you have such a survey?
Answer: Thanks for asking such a great question. We seem to get a lot of questions for people looking for topic-specific surveys, and I have 3 answers for you. First, we have a couple of sections in the CTB on survey development and use. You might want to check them out (although they do not have specific surveys on your topic). You might want to check out Chapter 3 Assessing Community Needs and Resources, in the table of contents (/tools/en/chapter_1003.htm). Second, you might want to contact the National Center for Environmental Health at CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/). They are partly responsible for data in this area, and you might want to be using the same tool as them. It would allow you to make comparisons to national (and maybe local) data samples. They have two relevant programs--the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, and the Environmental Hazards and Health Effects program. You could also do a quick search on their web site for a survey, and you might quickly get access to one (or several). Third, and one place that I find invaluable, is Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/). It does not have the usual filters for journal quality that you might find with the National Library of Medicine (MedLine, PubMed), but you will find a lot of related journal articles that reference the survey of your choice. I am sure that you could quickly find an article with a survey tool, and contact the authors to see if they can provide the instrument they used. We do hope this helps you in your search.
Question Date: Fri, 06/15/2007