Phil Hogan
Question:110 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Health and Children the proposals, if any, he has for the undertaking of a comprehensive population health survey; and if so, if he will outline the details of the survey. [9771/00]
Written Answers. - Health Statistics.
Alan Shatter
Question:217 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Health and Children the proposals, if any, he has for the undertaking of a comprehensive population health survey; and, if so, if he will outline the details of the survey. [10211/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 110 and 217 together.
Two baseline surveys of health related behaviours among adults and school-going young people were carried out across the Republic of Ireland in 1998 by the National University of Galway on behalf of my Department. This was the first survey of its type and is to be repeated on a three year cycle. The major results of these surveys were published in 1999 under the title The National Health and Lifestyle Surveys.
As is common practice in other EU countries, health information surveys are used together with existing sources of national health data to obtain an overview of the health of the population. These sources include, among others: the hospital in-patient inquiry which records data on all in-patient cases from publicly funded hospitals; the National Cancer Registry which records all incident cases of cancers nationally; vital statistics data published on my behalf by the Central Statistics Office which provide mortality data as well as enabling the calculation of life expectancy; perinatal statistics which provide information on maternal and infant health.
Most of these sources are included in the public health information system which provides a common minimum dataset for the evaluation of health status at national and regional levels.
For the first time, the Census of Population, 2001, will include questions on disability that my Department will use to obtain population based measures of health.
It is the objective of my Department to measure and monitor the health of the population through the optimum use of health information. Where gaps in information exist, these are being addressed through improved and extended data collection systems with the aim of achieving a comprehensive and integrated national health information system.