How healthy is the Northland? The Bridge to Health Survey is trying to answer that question — but it needs your responses to do so.
The research effort is led by the University of Wisconsin-Superior and coordinated by Generations Health Care Initiatives, with support from over 40 local organizations.
Surveys have been sent to households in northeastern Minnesota every five years since 1995.
The goal is to fill gaps in local data by asking questions about topics like substance use, access to care and mental health.
Surveys are randomly mailed out to households in the service area, but to get good data, enough people have to fill them out. The first mailing was in September, but the Bridge to Health Survey recently sent out another round to Itasca, Kanabec, Koochiching, Pine and St. Louis counties in December because there weren't enough responses.
The anonymous survey data is available online and is used by schools, health systems and nonprofits.
The data helped Essentia Health and Mesabi East with a $10,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for a farm-to-school program. Other projects spurred by the data include a farmers market in Duluth and suicide prevention efforts in Aitkin County.
More information on the Bridge to Health Survey is available here.
