Bellevue Health study 2003-2004

Better response rate sought for Bellevue survey
By BARBARA O'BRIEN
News Southtowns Bureau
4/15/2004

Researchers looking into the rates of autoimmune and respiratory diseases in the Bellevue area are trying to increase the response rate to their surveys.

"We're at a critical final phase now in conducting this health study. It is vital that as many residents as possible respond to the public health survey," said Joseph A. Gardella Jr., a University at Buffalo chemistry professor.

Some residents in the Bellevue neighborhood, which is home to a stone quarry and three landfills, have believed that they have high rates of illness because of the quarry and the landfills. The health study is an intensive look to see if that is true.

Bellevue is one of two neighborhoods where residents have been asked to fill out the 10-page survey. Researchers also have passed out the surveys in the Dick Road-George Urban Boulevard area. It was chosen to be a control group because its population is similar to Bellevue in size, age, gender, education and length of residence.

To reach more people, survey organizers are holding open houses at Resurrection Catholic Church Hall, 130 Como Park Blvd., near Union Road. Coordinators of the study will be there from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday and from noon to 5 p.m. April 24.

Residents can pick up new surveys and fill them out, and talk with Gardella, an associate dean at UB who is principal investigator for the study, and Christine Brinkhus, a graduate student in anthropology who is directing the project. Donna Hosmer, president of the Cheektowaga Citizens Coalition, also will be on hand to answer questions.

UB students went door-to-door last fall, handing out information about the study and the surveys. After the weather turned cold, surveys were mailed to those who had not been contacted in person. There were 3,000 surveys delivered in each community.

The response rate has been about 8 percent, according to Brinkhus, who said, "We're desperately trying to get it up to 33 percent."

The survey will be valid only if 30 percent to 40 percent respond, Gardella said.

Brinkhus said it appears man people are choosing not to participate. Others agreed to participate but never turned in the survey. Organizers sent mailings to 1,000 people this week.

"The survey is 10 pages long, and we know it takes a substantial amount of time and thought to answer it," Gardella said, "but frankly, responding to the survey is the only way that the community will be able to have closure, to find out once and for all if further study is needed because something in their environment is making them and their loved ones sick."

Brinkhus said data collection and data entry should be completed by May 31. It could take 12 months after that to analyze the data, she said.

The study is a cooperative venture among the state Department of Health, UB, the Cheektowaga Citizens Coalition and the Erie County Health Department.

As of the week of July 21, 2003, nine University of Buffalo students, accompanied by neighborhood residents, went door-to-door to distribute health survey forms for current residents.

Health information also will be gathered on former residents as far back as 20 yrs. who wish to participate. Participants in the UB/ NY State Health Department study will complete surveys without study representatives present and mail them, postage-paid, directly to the UB

researchers. The confidentiality of participants and the privacy of health information will be maintained and community members will not have access to the surveys or the data concerning individuals or households.

The collaboration between UB, the state health department, Town of Cheektowaga and citizens groups will compare rates of these diseases in this neighborhood to a nearby neighborhood with similar demographics.

"This survey is the first of its kind in the country," said Joseph A. Gardella, Ph.D., UB professor of chemistry and principal investigator on the project, "because it was designed by the community itself, along with the collaboration of UB and the New York State Department of Health." Associate dean for external affairs in the UB College of Arts and Sciences, Gardella is an environmental chemist who has won local and national awards for working with citizens groups to resolve conflicts concerning the environment. The study should be complete and the results released to residents sometime this spring.

disease such as Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, & MS. There also seems to be an unusually high amount of asthma and respiratory disease in children & non smoking adults.