In short
A national Health Interview Survey (HIS) provides an overall picture of the health status of the population and allows to identify the main health problems, as well as the social and behavioral factors that influence them. This information enables health authorities to pursue a proactive health policy aimed at improving public health and addressing the needs of groups at risk. Researchers, experts and the press use the results of the HIS.
Project description
We organized a large-scale Health Interview Survey (HIS) among the Belgian population for the first time in 1997, something we have repeated every 4 to 5 years since. The 7th Health Survey will start in January 2023. The fieldwork will run until December 2024. Households invited to participate in this survey can find more information about the course of the interview on the participant page. The collected data will be analysed in the course of 2024/25 and will the first results will be published by September 2025.
Would you like to become an interviewer for the Health Interview Survey 2023? Find out if you are eligible via this short questionnaire in Dutch or in French
The HIS collects information on a wide range of health topics: physical and mental health, lifestyle, use of health care and preventive services, perception of the physical and social environment, etc. Furthermore, the HIS has been part of the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) since 2013. This allows not only to study time trends in different health domains and in health inequalities, but also to compare the Belgian results with those of the other EU Member States. In 2018, a health survey was also conducted among some of the HIS participants (Health Examination Survey – HES). In 2023-2024, an oral health survey (Oral Health Data Registration and Evaluation System – OHDRES) will take place with selected HIS participants. More information about this research can be found on the OHDRES project page.
Results
The widespread use of the HIS data encourages the development of evidence-based health policies, which in turn improves the health of the population and reduces health inequalities. That is why we aim to facilitate the procedure for external users to access the HIS data.
All HIS results are available online in extensive reports and via the interactive tool HISIA, which can be used to conduct your own analyses.
Below you will find the reports of the results of the HIS 2018 and the HIS 2013 organized by topic.
Health Interview Survey 2018:
You can also request by email the protocol, the questionnaires and the reports of the previous Health Interview Surveys (2008, 2004, 2001 and 1997).
Any further questions about the Health Interview Survey? Contact the HIS team.
Read more about the other surveys of the Health Surveys unit.
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