Small area estimates of self assessed health and limiting long-term illness developed using multilevel small area estimation methodologies. Estimates are for varying combinations of England, Wales and Scotland and are at the middle layer super output area (or equivalent). Comparisons with 2011 census data are facilitated. Estimates were developed using the Health Surveys for England, Wales and Scotland, and using the Crime Survey for England and Wales. Publications and working papers to date are available from the Project website (see 'additional resources')With the 2011 Census probably being the last, this project focuses on testing an alternative approach to generating small area data. The aim is to create estimates for 'health' indicators presently provided in the census: self-assessed health, limiting long term illness, carer responsibilities, and absence of work due to disability. The project will develop prior work using small area synthetic estimation based on multilevel modelling. This approach derives statistical models from large-scale surveys and uses the parameters of the models to develop estimates of the target variables. The project aims to cover the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom and will work with survey data from each country for the data collection period for the 2011 census. The resultant multilevel synthetic estimates for the health indicators will be compared with the actual data for the indicators collected in the 2011 census. Research will focus on model development and effectiveness as well as the ability of the method to accommodate inter-censal change and spatial dependency.
The deposited data sets were based on secondary analysis of public use / secure access versions of Health Surveys for England, Wales and Scotland, and Crime Survey for England and Wales. Additional data (Indices of multiple deprivation, benefit claim data) were linked to these secondary sources. There was no primary data collection. Multilevel small area synthetic estimation was used to derive project output data.
