The annual Healthy Ireland Survey is a repeated cross-sectional annual study that provides an up-to-date picture of the nation’s health along with a robust and credible baseline set of data on a range of health behaviours which have significant impact on individual health outcomes. These data are being used by the Department of Health to inform current and future policy direction and programme development and implementation. The Survey reports on many lifestyle behaviours such as smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, active travel, weight management, diet and nutrition, health service utilization patterns, dental health, chronic disease incidence, mental health, sleep patterns, dementia awareness, caring responsibilities, women’s health and sexual health. Some modules are repeated every year (e.g. smoking, demographics, chronic conditions), however, the majority of modules are being repeated on a 2-4 year cycle, allowing the Survey to ask a wider variety of questions. The Questionnaire for each year therefore varies substantially (but not completely) from the year before; researchers should be aware of that. Since 2014, the Healthy Ireland Survey has been administered on an annual basis by Ipsos on behalf of the Department of Health.

Probability: Simple random. Respondents were selected using a random digit dialling approach and were interviewed (as previously) by specially trained Healthy Ireland Survey interviewers.

Telephone interview: CATI