Orange County NC Website
<br />Staffing and Costs <br />The studies involved a total of 26 health department staff, one volunteer from the Medical Reserve <br />Corps, and time from the consultants listed above. Costs for the studies are incomplete since there is <br />still some follow-up work to be done, however costs to date total $38,252. Of that amount, $8,000 is <br />for water and air testing supplies and duplicating (surveys, informational packets, water results, <br />applications); $1,078 for staff travel for collection of water samples; $14,354 for staff time for <br />collecting water samples and conducting telephone interviews; and $14,820 for staff time in <br />planning the studies or analyzing the data, This staff time estimate does not include the time "off <br />hours" that staff spent in telephone interviewing or in attending community meetings. Health <br />Department staff members have continued to meet with the community on a monthly basis <br />tluoughout the study time period. Mr. and Mrs.. Holloway devoted countless hours to providing <br />follow-up in the community to assure that residents received and completed water testing <br />applications and that phone numbers for residents were gathered and passed to the Health <br />Department for telephone interviews, <br />Cancer Prevalence Assessment <br />The Mill Creek Road Area Cancer Rate Assessment has two parallel but sepazate studies. The first <br />consisted of a telephone survey of residents living in the Mill Creek Road area by the Orange <br />County Health Department. The second study was conducted by the North Carolina Cancer Registry <br />at the request of the Health Department and consisted of an exanzination of cancer incidence <br />reported tluough the North Carolina Cancer Registry for two census tracts. <br />Telephone Survey <br />The telephone survey began on October .3, 2005 and ended December 17, 2005. During this period, <br />the Orange County Health Department (OCHD) conducted a telephone survey of residents living in <br />the Mill Creek Road area. There were 133 total households in the study area.. Surveys were <br />completed for 86 households (65%). Twenty-two households (16% of the total) were reached but <br />declined participation in the survey, leaving a total of 25 households (19% of the total) not reached. <br />Pazticipants were limited to persons living in the home and relatives of persons diagnosed who are <br />either deceased or wider 18 years of age. The total number of household members in the cancer rate <br />study was 198. <br />The NC Public Health Regional Surveillance Team IV Envirannental Epidemiologist assisted the <br />Epi Team in developing the survey and telephone interviewer script. The end result was a 47- <br />question survey, telephone interview script, and survey question guide. (Please see appendices 1-3 <br />for these documents.) <br />Telephone interviewers were either staff of the Orange County Health Depaztment or members of <br />the Orange County Medical Reserve Corps Volunteers. Prior to conducting the survey, all <br />interviewers were trained by reviewing the interviewer script in a group training session. Each <br />"survey day" during the first two weeks consisted of twelve hours, broken down into three shifts: <br />morning (8:00 a. m. - 12:00 p.m.), afternoon (12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.) and evening (4:00 p.m. - 8:00 <br />p. m.) Each shift had at least two telephone interviewers. Any homes that were unreachable during <br />the morning and afternoon shifts were forwarded to the evening shift interviewers. Afrer the first two <br />weeks, staff members continued to follow up on households that had been umeachable. <br />Page 5 of 47 <br />