DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-5675-1
title: Health Survey for England, 2005
title: Health Survey for England, 1991-
title: HSE

description: &lt;div&gt;The &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Health Survey for England &lt;/span&gt;(HSE)&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;is a series of surveys designed to monitor trends in the nation's health.  It was commissioned by NHS Digital and carried out by the Joint Health Surveys Unit of the National Centre for Social Research and the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The aims of the HSE series are:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;to provide annual data about the nation’s health;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;to estimate the proportion of people in England with specified health conditions;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;to estimate the prevalence of certain risk factors associated with these conditions;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;to examine differences between population subgroups in their likelihood of having specific conditions or risk factors;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;to assess the frequency with which particular combinations of risk factors are found, and which groups these combinations most commonly occur;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;to monitor progress towards selected health targets&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;since 1995, to measure the height of children at different ages, replacing the National Study of Health and Growth;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;since 1995, monitor the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;The survey includes a number of core questions every year but also focuses on different health issues at each wave. Topics are revisited at appropriate intervals in order to monitor change. &lt;br&gt;
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Further information about the series may be found on the NHS Digital &lt;a href="https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/areas-of-interest/public-health/health-survey-for-england---health-social-care-and-lifestyles#about-the-survey" title="Health Survey for England; health, social care and lifestyles" target="_blank"&gt;Health Survey for England; health, social care and lifestyles&lt;/a&gt; webpage, the NatCen Social Research &lt;a href="https://natcen.ac.uk/s/health-survey-england" title="NatCen Health Survey for England" target="_blank"&gt;NatCen Health Survey for England&lt;/a&gt; webpage and the University College London Health and Social Surveys Research Group &lt;a title="UCL Health Survey for England" href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/epidemiology-health-care/research/epidemiology-and-public-health/research/health-and-social-surveys-research-group/studies-0" target="_blank"&gt;UCL Health Survey for England&lt;/a&gt; webpage.&lt;br&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Changes to the HSE from 2015&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;Users should note that from 2015 survey onwards, only the individual data file is available under standard End User Licence (EUL). The household data file is now only included in the Special Licence (SL) version, released from 2015 onwards. In addition, the SL individual file contains all the variables included in the HSE EUL dataset, plus others, including variables removed from the EUL version after the NHS England disclosure review. The SL HSE is subject to more restrictive access conditions than the EUL version (see Access information). Users are advised to obtain the EUL version to see if it meets their needs before considering an application for the SL version.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;COVID-19 and the HSE:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br&gt;Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the HSE 2020 survey was stopped in March 2020 and never re-started. There was no publication that year. The survey resumed in 2021, albeit with an amended methodology. The full HSE resumed in 2022, with an extended fieldwork period. Due to this, the decision was taken not to progress with the 2023 survey, to maximise the 2022 survey response and enable more robust reporting of data. See the &lt;a href="https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/areas-of-interest/public-health/health-survey-for-england---health-social-care-and-lifestyles#about-the-survey"&gt;NHS Digital Health Survey for England - Health, social care and lifestyles&lt;/a&gt; webpage for more details.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 The HSE 2005 was designed to provide data at both national and regional level about the population living in private households in England. The sample comprised three components: the core (general population) sample; a boost sample of people aged 65 years and over (those living in institutions were not included); and a boost sample of children aged 2-15. The core sample was designed to be representative of the population living in private households in England and should be used for analyses at the national level. &lt;br&gt;
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All private households in the general population sample are eligible for inclusion in the survey (up to a maximum of three households per address). For the core sample, up to two children aged 0-15 are interviewed in each household, as well as up to 10 adults aged 16 and over. At boost sample addresses, interviewers screened for households containing at least one person of either of the age groups covered in the boost: persons aged 65 and over, or (for certain months) children aged 2-15 years. Because of funding restrictions, the boost sample only included children during fieldwork conducted in January, February, October, November and December. At each household where people of the eligible ages were found, all persons aged 65 and over, and up to two eligible children were selected by the interviewer for inclusion in the survey. Interviewing was conducted throughout the year to take account of seasonal differences.&lt;br&gt;
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For the second edition (April 2010), three new children's Body Mass Index (BMI) variables have been added to the individual data file (bmicat1, bmicat2, bmicat3). The original variables (bmicut, bmicut2, bmicut3) are unreliable and should not be used. Further information is available in the documentation and on the Information Centre for Health and Social Care &lt;a href=" http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/health-and-lifestyles-related-surveys/health-survey-for-england" title "Health Survey for England" &gt;Health Survey for England&lt;/a&gt; web page.&lt;br&gt;
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For the third edition (July 2011), the GHQ12 variables were amended to correct errors in the GHQ12 scores. See document 'Note about GHQ12 problems in HSE Data' for details.&lt;br&gt;
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