The national health and lifestyle survey, SLÁN, was first undertaken in 1998 and repeated again in the summer of 2002. The work was commissioned by the Health Promotion Unit of the Department of Health & Children and carried out at the Centre for Health Promotion Studies at NUI Galway and at the Department of Public Health Medicine and Epidemiology, University College Dublin (now UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science). The main aims of these surveys are to: Produce reliable data of a nationally representative cross-section of the Irish population in order to inform the Department of Health and Children's policy and programme planning; Maintain a survey protocol which will enable lifestyle factors to be re-measured so that trends can be identified and changes monitored to assist national and regional setting of priorities in health promotion activities. As in 1998, a representative cross-section of the Irish adult population was surveyed, with a sample powerful enough at a National level, to detect differences according to socio-economic status in key variables: smoking, exercise and percentage caloric intake from fat. Allowances were made for non-response and likelihood of ineligibility to participate. The sample was generated randomly from the Irish electoral register supplied by Precision Marketing Information (PMI) Ltd., a subsidiary of An Post.

Probability: Multistage. Sampling frame: Electoral Register. Sample: Multistaged sample drawn by electoral division Stratification: Proportionate distribution across each of the 26 counties, locality and gender

Self-administered questionnaire: Paper