Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The Health Survey for England, 2018 (HSE) is the twenty-eighth year of a series of surveys designed to monitor trends in the nation's health.The 2018 HSE was commissioned by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (now NHS Digital) and carried out by the Joint Health Surveys Unit of NatCen Social Research and the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL (University College London).The aims of the HSE series are: to provide annual data about the nation's health; to estimate the proportion of people in England with specified health conditions; to estimate the prevalence of certain risk factors associated with these conditions; to examine differences between population subgroups in their likelihood of having specific conditions or risk factors; to assess the frequency with which particular combinations of risk factors are found, and which groups these combinations most commonly occur; to monitor progress towards selected health targets including the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children; to measure the height of children at different ages, replacing the National Study of Health and Growth (since 1995); to monitor the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children (since 1995). The 2018 survey included additional topics on breathing problems for adults and children, and gambling participation among adults. The survey also provided updates on repeated core topics, including general health, long standing illness, smoking and drinking. Changes to the HSE from 2015:Only the individual data file is now available within the standard End User Licence (EUL) (see the 2018 EUL study, SN 8649). 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 Digital 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 whether it meets their needs before considering an application for the SL version.
Main Topics:
Core topics:General healthLongstanding illnessSmokingAverage weekly alcohol consumptionDrinking (heaviest day in last week)Consent to data linkage (NHS central register, HES)Socio-economic information: sex, age, income, education, employment etcPrescribed medications (nurse)Additional topics:Social care receipt AsthmaGamblingMeasurements:Height and weightBlood pressure (nurse)Waist and hip circumference (nurse)Blood sample for cholesterol, glycated haemoglobin (nurse)Saliva sample (nurse)
Multi-stage stratified random sample
Clinical measurements
Self-administered questionnaire: Computer-assisted (CASI)
Self-administered questionnaire: Paper
Face-to-face interview: Computer-assisted (CAPI/CAMI)
