Healthy Ireland Survey, 2015

The Healthy Ireland Survey is an annual interviewer administered face-to-face survey conducted on behalf of the Department of Health by Ipsos MRBI. The first wave with 7,539 participants was carried out in 2014/2015. Its purpose is to provide current and credible data about the wide variety of factors which determine health and wellbeing in the population aged 15 years and older. The topics covered include general health, health service utilisation and key lifestyle factors, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, diet, sexual health and wellbeing to monitor the key trends and policy impacts in those areas. It also offers flexibility for the substitution of further modules to meet particular policy needs, including cross-sectoral /health determinant ‘health in all policies’ issues. A questionnaire was developed using validated questions where possible. This was done to ensure comparability with other surveys and to facilitate our international reporting to the EU, the OECD and the World Health Organization. In addition to completing the survey questionnaire individuals interviewed on this wave of the survey were asked to undertake a physical measurement module. Within this module interviewers measured and recorded the respondent’s height, weight and waist circumference. A total of 6,142 respondents (81%) participated in this module. After completing the survey questionnaire, respondents aged 17 and over were asked to complete a self-completion questionnaire on issues relating to sexual health. A total of 6,529 respondents (87% of those aged 17 and over) completed at least part of this questionnaire. Approval to conduct the study was provided by the Research Ethics Committee at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.