Coverage of Health Topics by Surveys in the European Union (original) (raw)

Linkage with existing harmonisation activities The European Community Household Panel (ECHP) is a harmonised EU-wide survey developed by Eurostat in cooperation with the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs); sample size is 5,000 households on average per country. The first wave in 1994 was carried out in all MS at that time; 126,000 persons of 16 years and older were interviewed in 60,000 households. Each year until 1999 one wave will be executed, and thus in total 6 waves will be carried out. The survey contains a small health section (5 topics) and some health related indicators in other sections. In an annex to this report (which will be added later) this section will be discussed, with the aim to complete the information on data availability. Given the limited space for a health component in the ECHP, covering the wide area of social events in a birds' eye view, it can of course by no means provide all information on health which could best be collected by means of national surveys. The Eurobarometer is a half-yearly opinion survey funded by the Commission of the European Communities. It is EU-wide fielded via market research organisations; sample size is 1,000 persons for most countries. The main survey is on opinions regarding the European Union, but 'supplements' have been added to the survey, among others on questions that cover parts of the information needs for some of the EU health programmes (cancer, drugs, aids). In an annex (which will be added later to this report) recent health-related modules in the Eurobarometer will be discussed. The inclusion of health related topics in the Eurobarometer can only partially fulfil the information needs (relatively small sample size, quality aspects). Another very important international activity is the WHO Health For All indicators project (HFA, only the 'survey indicators') and in particular the WHO-Euro HIS project. In the following paragraphs the items related to these HFA indicators are presented separately in the list of areas/topics extracted from the EU public health programmes. The recommended instruments in the WHO/NCBS publication 'Health Interview Surveys. Towards international harmonisation of methods and instruments' (WHO, 1996) are used as a reference for evaluating the national questions on the items for which common instruments exist. The results of a WHO-Euro enquiry on items in health interview surveys conducted in 1995, the so-called survey of surveys, could not yet be COVERAGE OF HEALTH TOPICS BY SURVEYS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION C:\USR\SANDRINE\MDS\9035EN.DOC 6 21/05/2001 included in this study (WHO, 1997a, Fourth Consultation to develop common methods and instruments for health interview surveys in Europe, Copenhagen, 26-28 February 1997, INFO020305/26).