The annual Healthy Ireland Survey 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- MRBI on behalf of the Department of Health. Please note that the mode of data collection was different in 2021 to previous years. This introduces the potential of what is known as mode effect (data not being fully comparable due to a change between two data collection approaches – in this case from in-person to over the telephone). While it is important to note this caution, it is the considered opinion of the researchers that any impact is minimal, unless clearly stated within the 2021 report.
Probability: Simple random, Probability: Stratified, Probability: Multistage. Necessary public health restrictions introduced to prevent the spread of Covid-19 meant that conducting the Survey by personal interview was no longer feasible or safe. Following adaptation of the Healthy Ireland Survey questionnaire and interview methodology to safer telephone interviewing, fieldwork on the seventh wave began in October 2020. Respondents were selected using a random digit dialling approach and were interviewed (as previously) by specially trained Healthy Ireland Survey interviewers.
Telephone interview: CATI
