Health Survey for England

Introduction

The Health Survey for England is a series of annual surveys about the health of people in England. The Health Survey was first proposed in 1990 to improve information of morbidity by the (then) newly created Central Health Monitoring Unit within the Department of Health. This information is used to underpin and improve targeting of nationwide health policies.

The survey was carried out in 1991-1993 by the Office for Population Censuses and Surveys which is now part of the Office for National Statistics. From 1994 onwards the survey has been carried out by the Joint Survey Unit of the National Centre of Social Research and the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London.

The survey aims:

• to provide annual data about the nation's health;
• to estimate the proportion of the population with specific health conditions;
• to estimate the prevalence of risk factors associated with those conditions;
• to assess the frequency with which combinations of risk factors occur;
• to examine differences between population sub-groups;
• to monitor targets in the health strategy;
• (from 1995) to measure the height of children at different ages, replacing the national study of health and growth.

Further information can be found at the Department of Health website.

For more information about SSD or the surveys we carry out contact:
SSD Project Support Branch Tel: +44 (0)20 7533 5500 or e-mail: ssdpsb@ons.gov.uk

This page last revised: Wednesday, 14 November 2001