Residents of Camano and Whidbey islands who have ideas on how to get children and adults to be more active need to get moving this weekend.
Sunday is the last day to participate in the Island County Health Department’s 17-question online survey on how to get people to adopt healthier habits.
The survey is part of a larger project to get people to be more active and improve their nutrition, said Carrie McLachlan, who supervises assessment and community development for the county health department.
While there’s a lot of national attention on the problems of overweight and out-of-shape children and adults, “there’s not a lot of attention paid to what works” to help people change their habits, she said.
An estimated 43 percent of adults in Island County are overweight – one of the highest adult rates in the state, according to a 2003 state Department of Health survey.
No one knows why Island County adults rank so high, she said.
“We don’t have a lot of health clubs and gyms,” McLachlan said. Many island adults have long commutes, she said, so when they get home, “it’s so late and dark all they do is fix dinner.”
Lack of sidewalks on the two islands also discourages walking. Making the islands more pedestrian-friendly is a goal of Island County Health Department employees who have been studying ways to encourage people to be more active, she said.
The online survey, which takes about five minutes to complete, is at www.strategiclearningresources. com. Free Internet access is available at Island County libraries, McLachlan said.
Thirty minutes of moderate physical activity at least five days a week can have significant physical and mental benefits, he said, and one question asks whether the respondent is that active.
Another asks participants to rate how important having access to a fitness center at work is or having healthy food choices in vending machines would be to improving their fitness and nutrition.
Dr. Roger Case, who leads the Island County Health Department, said this is the first time the public health agency has conducted such a survey.
It provides a chance for people to say what they would like to see to get more support for increasing their physical activity, whether it’s building more pathways and trails or marking the nutritional content of food on restaurant menus.
“We just want to know where to spend our effort,” he said.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@ heraldnet.com.
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