Department says no duplication between HI and CSO surveys

The Healthy Ireland Survey is being conducted by Ipsos MRBI and the field work commenced in November. Over 10,000 households have been randomly selected for the nationwide survey, which is designed to provide vital data on the state of the nation’s health.

The <em><strong>Medical Independent (MI) </strong></em>has been told that results are expected in early summer.

The CSO survey is a new household survey that is conducted between October 2014 and December 2015. A nationally representative sample of 5,000 people aged 16 and over will be interviewed each quarter using both a combination of paper and electronic questionnaires.

A Department spokesperson said this week that there had been co-ordination between the two similar surveys and there will not be duplication.

“The Healthy Ireland Survey, which is currently in the field, has been undertaken to collect a comprehensive set of data on health and wellbeing in 2015,” a Department spokesperson told <em><strong>MI</strong></em>.

“The results of this will update data on health behaviours which has not been collected since 2006 (and published in Slán 2007.)

“The Department has paid particular attention to ensuring that a consistent approach is taken in collecting social and health data across relevant surveys, including ensuring consistency with the Irish Health Survey.

“The CSO’s Irish Health Survey is being undertaken in accordance with EU Regulations which set out the questions and topics to be covered in order to achieve comparable EU statistics across countries.

“The Healthy Ireland Survey contains a broader number of topic areas. Because of the set questions used across Europe there is no facility to include individual, country-specific questions in the CSO survey.

“By nature of its design, the Healthy Ireland Survey will allow examination of health and wellbeing behaviours across a broader range of thematic areas, while also allowing comparability with data being collected by the CSO.”