The Irish Health Survey (IHS) was collected under Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work. This survey fulfils the need for public health policies to obtain reliable data on health status, health care usage and health determinants. Questionnaire The Irish Health Survey was designed in line with the third wave of the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS)2. The collection of the data under the aforementioned European Regulation implies that harmonised data can be obtained across the European continent. The Irish Health Survey can be divided into three fundamental components. These are the European Health Status Module (EHSM), the European Health Care Module (EHCM), and the European Health Determinants Module (EHDM). The European Health Status Module: The module on health status is a central element of the survey. It allows measurement of the health status of the population in general, and not only in relation to specific health problems. It covers different aspects and dimensions of health: physical and mental health, chronic and temporary problems and specific conditions. It covers the general impact on the functional status and the limitations in activities of daily living of the respondents. The first three general questions on self-perceived health, long standing illnesses or health problems, and activity limitations constitute the Minimum European Health Module (MEHM). The European Health Care Module: The ECHM module collects data on the use of health care services and the unmet needs for health care. Information on health care consumption is an essential part of the health information system in order to assign necessary resources to the population. This allows analysis of the relationships between health consumption and several determinants such as health status, lifestyles or socio-demographic characteristics as well as the relationships between different types of health care use. The European Health Determinants Module: The general focus of this module is to measure aspects in lifestyles or health-related behaviours. These may have a positive or negative impact on an individual’s health status. Along with the above data, additional variables collected included were; NUTS3 region, sex, age, nationality, and level of deprivation
Probability: Multistage. The sample was derived for Irish Health Survey. It is a multi-stage cluster sample resulting in all households in Ireland having an equal probability of selection. The sample is stratified using administrative county and the Pobal HP (Haase and Pratschke) Deprivation Index (quintile). A two-stage sample design is used. Firstly, 1,200 blocks are selected using Probability Proportional to Size (PPS) sampling. All occupied households on Census night 2012 within each block were eligible for selection in the Social Statistics Sample. Secondly, households within blocks were selected using simple random sampling (SRS) without replacement for inclusion in the survey sample. This ensures each household in the sample frame has an equal probability of selection.
Self-administered questionnaire: Paper
