DOI: 10.3886/icpsr09957
title: Euro-barometer 37.1: Consumer Goods and Social Security, April-May 1992
title: Archival Version

description: This round of Euro-Barometer surveys queried respondents on
 standard Euro-Barometer measures such as public awareness of and
 attitudes toward the Common Market and the European Community (EC),
 and also focused on consumer goods, Social Security, health care and
 health care benefits, the elderly, retirement, and alcohol and drug
 use. Questions concerning consumer goods asked whether respondents
 read product information before purchasing, what additional product
 information they would like to see, what three things other than price
 were most important in deciding whether to purchase an item, and
 whether it was necessary to have the same type of product information
 available for all members of the European Community (EC). Respondents'
 attitudes and opinions on Social Security were probed with questions
 that asked whether they agreed that Social Security properly protects
 the unemployed, the elderly, the sick or disabled, those with
 work-related injuries or illness, and the poor. Respondents were also
 asked whether policies on pensions, minimum income, and unemployment
 should be decided by national governments or by the EC, and whether
 foreigners should have the same Social Security benefits as citizens.
 The general health of respondents and their health care benefits were
 assessed through questions that asked whether they had a long-standing
 illness, disability, or infirmity, whether they had cut down their
 activity due to illness or injury, and whether they had taken medicine
 or talked to a doctor within the last 30 days. Respondents were also
 queried about which conditions they would see a doctor for and what
 type of examinations they had had in the past three years. Respondents
 were asked to rate what they paid for various medical services, the
 general quality of their health care, and the nature and availability
 of health insurance. The main problems facing the elderly and the role
 the elderly play in society were also topics of investigation in this
 survey. Questions elicited respondents' views toward possible changes
 in pension terms, whether retirement should occur at a fixed age, what
 types of discrimination affect the elderly who are working, whether
 the government should introduce laws to try to stop age
 discrimination, whether a minimum level of income should be provided
 to the elderly, and whether the elderly needing personal care should
 go into residential/nursing homes or should have social services help
 them remain in their homes for as long as possible. Respondents were
 also asked whether they provided long-term care to anyone either
 living with them or not living with them, who was in the best position
 to decide which services are most important for the elderly, what the
 best method of financing long-term care for the elderly was, and
 whether the EC was doing enough with regard to the elderly. Questions
 on retirement dealt with what ages respondents retired/planned to
 retire, whether the retired felt their pensions to be adequate,
 whether working people looked forward to retiring, whether pensions
 should be extended to widows and dependent children, whether pensions
 should be reduced for those who work for earned income beyond
 retirement, and whether pensions should be provided through government
 taxation, employer/employee contributions, or private contracts
 between workers and pension companies. Queries about alcohol and drug
 usage probed the use of beer, wine, spirits, and other forms of
 alcohol, age at which the respondent began drinking, familiarity with
 major forms of drugs, age at which drugs were first offered, how
 difficult it was to get drugs, and the means available for getting
 drugs. Additional questions focused on how the respondent viewed the
 drug problem, the top priority in eliminating the drug problem,
 diminishing the effects of drug use, whether drug use leads to AIDS,
 prostitution, health problems, social problems, violence, suicide,
 personality breakdowns, and problems with the law, and the major
 reasons for alcohol and drug use. Demographic and other background
 information was gathered on life satisfaction, number of people
 residing in the home, size of locality, home ownership, trade union
 membership, region of residence, and occupation of the head of
 household, as well as the respondent's age, sex, marital status,
 education, occupation, work sector, religiosity, subjective social
 class, use of media, left-right political self-placement, and opinion
leadership.
description: Multistage national probability samples.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Euro-barometer 37.1: Consumer Goods and Social Security, April-May 1992
description: Persons aged 15 and over residing in the 12 member nations
 of the European community: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece,
 Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the
United Kingdom.
description: (1) Data processing for this collection was performed
 at the Zentralarchiv fuer Empirische Sozialforschung in Koeln,
 Germany. (2) The codebook and data collection instrument are provided
 as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. The PDF file format was
 developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF
 reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how
 to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR
Website.