European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), 2009

Health in focus Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity1. The highest possible level of physical and mental health is one of the fundamental human rights. It determines so the life and life quality of people as the income production capacity of a society. Thus, the existence and availability of information necessary to increase the efficiency of health preservation and improvement becomes more and more important. Some pieces of information concerning health can be obtained solely with the help of health survey questionnaires, as data received from health care institutions do not inform among others about lifestyle and social factors influencing health, about the expenditure of the population spent on health and about the satisfaction with the health care system. Over the course of data collection, it also becomes clear how often the respondents visit their general practitioners, dentists, whether they take part in screenings, what they do in the interest of their health (physical exercise, conscious nutrition), as well as it reports about health-damaging habits (smoking, alcohol consumption). In the last two decades, three representative, national interview surveys were conducted in the field of health; in 1994 under the guidance of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office and in 2000 and 2003 under the professional supervision of the National Centre for Epidemiology. However, the comparison of results is limited as the sample from the observed population and some of the questions and possible answers were different. Due to the subjectivity of self-assessment of health, this method is neither sufficient itself for establishing the actual health conditions of the population. It is necessary to know and take into account the statistics of general practitioners and other health institutions and to analyze the data from the two mentioned sources together as well. One of the most important objectives of the health programme of the EU for 2008–2013 is to provide comparable data about the health conditions of the European citizens. In the interest of this objective, EU lays great emphasis on elaborating health indicators and on activities connected to data collection. The European Parliament and Council Regulation put into force in December 20082 ordered the execution of health interview surveys in the member states. According to the plans, surveys conducted on the basis of a uniform methodology will be repeated every five years, thus, we can obtain information on the health conditions and changes in lifestyle of the population which are comparable on EU level as well. In Hungary, the first internationally standardized European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) was conducted in the autumn of 2009 under the guidance of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office3, and, in parallel, the National Institute for Food and Nutrition Science carried out a survey on a subgroup of respondents about nutrition and feeding conditions. In the framework of EHIS, we observed in 2009 the population aged 15 years and older. The results reflect so the health conditions and lifestyle of the population over 14 years of age living in private households, as children under 15 years of age and people living in institutions were not surveyed.