May 7, 1999

KU Medical Center To Hand Deliver Health Questionnaires in Fredonia

On May 13, KUMC staff will begin delivering Southeast Kansas 

Health Study questionnaires to all households in the city of Fredonia

KANSAS CITY, KAN. — Members of The University of Kansas Medical Center’s Southeast Kansas Health Study team will hand-deliver health questionnaires to all households in  the city of Fredonia beginning Thursday, May 13.  The questionnaires are a key research component of the Southeast Kansas Health Study.  Commissioned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and being conducted by KU Medical Center, the study is directed at investigating possible health effects related to the operation of four commercial hazardous waste burners and other potential sources of environmental releases located in southeast Kansas.

Randomly selected households in the cities of Chanute, Coffeyville, and Independence also will receive health questionnaires as part of this study.  In Sedan, the study’s control community, every household will receive a questionnaire packet. 

“Fredonia is the only town where our staff will hand-deliver the questionnaires,” reports H. William Barkman, M.D., the study’s principal investigator and director of the Center for Environmental and Occupational Health at KU Medical Center.  “We decided to deliver the questionnaires this way because of problems related to the accuracy of some addresses on our mailing list.  By hand-delivering them, we will ensure that all households in the city receive a questionnaire packet,” he explains. 

The questionnaires are directed at obtaining information on the frequency of respiratory disease and cancer in the communities involved in the study.   Information taken from the completed questionnaires also will be used to help develop a sample group from which 50 individuals will be randomly selected from each community and invited to participate in a respiratory health medical evaluation.

Each questionnaire packet will contain both an adult’s and a child’s questionnaire.  Researchers ask that the adult questionnaire be filled out by the individual in that household, 13 years of age or older, who has had the most recent birthday.  The child’s questionnaire should be filled out by the individual in that household, or his parents, who is younger than 13 years old and who has had the most recent birthday.

Consent forms will be included in the packets.  These forms should be signed by the adult and child filling out the questionnaires, and the child’s parent.  The consent forms should be returned with completed questionnaires in the stamped, pre-addressed envelope included in the packet.

Returning completed questionnaires and signed consent forms promptly is critical to the success of the study.  “The more returned questionnaires we receive, the more powerful our study results will be,” Barkman emphasizes, “and returning signed consent forms is especially important because questionnaires cannot be used without them.”

KU Medical Center staff who will deliver survey packets in Fredonia include Randy Brewer, research assistant; Dennis Wallace, Ph.D, project statistician; and Mary Walker, project coordinator. 

Individuals who have questions about the questionnaires or the Southeast Kansas Health Study can call a toll-free number (for Kansas residents only), 877-511-2167, at KU Medical Center to speak with project staff.  The number is staffed from 8 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.  The number also has voice mail so that messages can be left after hours and when the line is busy.  Project staff can be reached through the following E-mail address: mwalker3@kumc.edu.  The mailing address for project staff is in care of the Center for Environmental and Occupational Health, 1034 Breidenthal Building, KU Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Kansas City, Kansas 66160-7417.