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Surveying your health

Mission challenges Abbotsford to participate in health survey

District of Mission is challenging the City of Abbotsford to encourage residents to participate in the Fraser Health Authority's health survey, My Health My Community.

Coun. Jeff Jewell, who suggested it, also recommended the mayor of the losing community polishes the mayor of the winning community's vehicle.

Since Abbotsford has a greater population, the success will be measured in percentages.

"If the City of Abbotsford can encourage more people to participate int he survey than we can in Mission, I will personally wash and wax Mayor (Bruce) Banman's car," said Mission Mayor Ted Adlem.

The recently launched survey aims to gather information from each municipality to better understand the health of each community. The current data available is sporadic and not consistent, explained Dr. Victoria Lee, who spoke to Mission council Monday night to help identify local networks to promote the survey.

The information collected will be used to help create health profiles for each community and can be accessed by Fraser Health and municipal staff for planning purposes.

The survey focusses on six categories: socio-demographic, health status, the built environment, lifestyle, healthcare access/primary care, and community belonging.

Anyone aged 18 and over can fill out the survey, which is available online at www.myhealthmycommunity.org. Lee added there will also be doing surveys in the community and will be working with organizations to encourage their members to participate.

The survey takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete and is available until Dec. 31, 2013.