Health interview surveys in the Czech Republic

Sample surveys are an integral part of health statistics. Their importance consists in the fact that they provide data unavailable from other sources; moreover, sample surveys make it possible to interlink several types of information.

There are a number of sample surveys focused on health issues; however, all of them correspond in basic items and are different from the common health statistics at the same time.

Sample surveys belong to health statistics due to their potential to provide missing data on some issues or to sort data on covered issues in more detail.

Health interview surveys make the following possible:

to identify serious health issues in the population
to describe the population’s state of health and therefore needed healthcare, too
to estimate the prevalence of chronic diseases in the population
to obtain data necessary for the analysis of health-related inequalities and for the identification of socio-economic relations
to monitor the healthcare consumption depending on certain determinants of health
to monitor trends in the development of health indicators
to obtain important data for areas linked to subjective evaluation of health and healthcare among the population
to obtain data needed for an effective definition and monitoring of targets in the area of healthcare policies at both national and international levels

Health interview surveys compared to regular health statistics, advantages and disadvantages

Health interview surveys
+
Detailed characteristics of an individual
The possibility of interconnection of different topics
Coverage of various topics
The possibility of capturing subjective attitudes and ratings
-
Only a sample is covered, population estimates must be made
Data collection is expensive, therefore only performed in selected years
Surveys can be biased by subjective attitudes of respondents

Routine health statistics
-
Little information on an individual
Limited possibilities of interconnection of different topics
Limited extent of covered topics
Burden on physicians
+
The entire population is covered
Data are collected regularly, trends can be monitored
“Harder” character of data