Danish Omnibus Survey, October 1988

The themes of this omnibus are: #Smoking habits; the correlation between active smoking and disease; passive smoking at place of work; the correlation between passive smoking and disease; knowledge of the circular from the Ministry of Health concerning so-called smokeless zones, a circular which was sent to state institutions, counties and municipalities in March 1988; knowledge of the Council of Health Damaging Effects of Tobacco (Tobaksskaderådet - a council which belongs under the Ministry of Health and the task of which is to strengthen the effort to limit the nuisances and health damaging effects of smoking); attitude to the introduction of a law which bans tobacco advertisements; knowledge of the Ethical Council (Det Etiske Råd) which was appointed by the Danish Parliament and whose task is to give advice and submit ethical problems to debate in connection with the medical development, e.g. the death criterion and test tube babies; knowledge of when a person is declared dead according to Danish legislation; knowledge of when a patient is declared brain dead; whether the respondent has witnessed the death of one of her/his intimates and whether the respondent was in doubt as to when death occurred; attitude to a so-called organ testament, i.e. a written document in which a person states that she/he will donate her/his organs for transplantation after death; knowledge of whether transplantation of hearts from patients who are declared brain dead takes place in Denmark; knowledge of under which circumstances heart transplants may take place according to Danish law; knowledge of under which circumstances autopsy may take place according to Danish legislation; and moonlighting. # The Danish National Institute of Social Research and Danmarks Statistik have carried out the so-called omnibus surveys regularly from January 1974 till the end of 1991 (from 1993 the Danish National Institute of Social Research has carried out its own omnibus surveys). The omnibus project was established as the Danish National Institute of Social Research, Danmarks Statistik, a number of other government institutions and researchers often experienced a need for examining major or minor problems without initiating independent surveys. The purpose of these surveys is to collect data on a variety of issues in the same interview. This means that the background information may be used in several surveys, thus reducing the costs of the data collection. The omnibus surveys are carried out each year at regular intervals. # A permanent part of the questionnaire in an omnibus survey is the so-called background questions, i.e. a number of questions which map out the respondent's personal and social situation. These background variables are described in the section 'Variables included'. # In addition to the background questions the questionnaire includes questions from external users - questions which form part of the Danish National Institute of Social Research's or Danmarks Statistik's part of the omnibus in question. These questions may deal with a variety of subjects. In principle all types of questions may be included in an omnibus, even if the questions deal with many different subjects, as the editors link the various series of questions. In this way abrupt and strange breaks are avoided, breaks which might distrub the interviewing. Technically it is also possible to ask a number of questions only to specific sub-groups of the sample, e.g. to women in a certain age group. # The data material filed at the DDA comprises the background questions asked jointly by the Danish National Institute and Danmarks Statistik as well as the questions asked by the Danish National Institute of Social Research