The information presented on persons with disabilities was collected as part of the Irish Health Survey 2019. The main results for this survey were published on December 11th 2020.
The detail in the rest of these background notes are sourced from the relevant parts of the Main Results publication, as the data collection for persons with disabilities was collected as part of the main health survey.
The data in this publication come from what are classed as the “Functional Limitations” part of the questionnaire. These questions come from the Budapest Initiative (BI) – Mark 2 (A Survey Module for Measuring Health State). These questions measure the main physical and sensory functional limitations. Measuring the prevalence of these limitations constitute the basic evaluation of the health state of the population, i.e. its situation in terms of functioning capacity whatever the reasons of the limitations (born with, disease, accident, ageing, etc.). These questions measure the main physical, sensory and cognitive functional limitations and are intended for respondents of all ages. Measuring the prevalence of these limitations constitute the basic evaluation of the health state of the population, i.e. its situation in terms of functioning capacity whatever the reasons of the limitations (born with, disease, accident, ageing, etc.).
NOTE: This publication only looks at the data where the respondent selected the choices: “a lot of difficulty” and “cannot do at all / unable to do”. Due to the relatively few responses for the “cannot do at all / unable to do” category, the answers to the choices: “a lot of difficulty” and “cannot do at all / unable to do” are combined. Consequently, for the purposes of this publication, disability is defined as those persons who have A lot of difficulty with or who cannot do the activity at all / unable to do the activity – with the activities listed below in the questions.
The questions asked of respondents to provide the information for this publication were as follows:
Question - Now I am going to ask you some further questions about your general physical and sensory health. These questions deal with your ability to do different basic activities. Please ignore any temporary problems.
Choices for each question were:
1 No difficulty
2 Some difficulty
3 A lot of difficulty
4 Cannot do at all/ Unable to do
Questions:
Table 5.1 outlines the prevalence of disability as defined above.
The Irish Health Survey (IHS) was collected under Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work1. This survey fulfils the need for public health policies to obtain reliable data on health status, health care usage and health determinants.
The Central Statistics Office wishes to thank the participating households for their co-operation in agreeing to take part in the survey, and for facilitating the collection of the relevant data.
The Irish Health Survey was designed in line with the third wave of the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS)2. The collection of the data under the aforementioned European Regulation implies that harmonised data can be obtained across the European continent. A copy of the Irish Health Survey questionnaire is available here: IHS Questionnaire
The Irish Health Survey can be divided into three fundamental components. These are the European Health Status Module (EHSM), the European Health Care Module (EHCM), and the European Health Determinants Module (EHDM). Elements of the EHSM were analysed for this Persons with Disabilities publication.
The European Health Status Module:
The module on health status is a central element of the survey. It allows measurement of the health status of the population in general, and not only in relation to specific health problems. It covers different aspects and dimensions of health: physical and mental health, chronic and temporary problems and specific conditions. It covers the general impact on the functional status and the limitations in activities of daily living of the respondents. The first three general questions on self-perceived health, long standing illnesses or health problems, and activity limitations constitute the Minimum European Health Module (MEHM).
The European Health Care Module:
The EHCM module collects data on the use of health care services and the unmet needs for health care. Information on health care consumption is an essential part of the health information system in order to assign necessary resources to the population. This allows analysis of the relationships between health consumption and several determinants such as health status, lifestyles or socio-demographic characteristics as well as the relationships between different types of health care use.
The European Health Determinants Module:
The general focus of this module is to measure aspects in lifestyles or health-related behaviours. These may have a positive or negative impact on an individual’s health status.
The sample was derived for the General Household Survey (GHS)[3]. It is a multi-stage cluster sample resulting in all households in Ireland having an equal probability of selection. The sample is stratified using administrative county and the Pobal HP (Haase and Pratschke) Deprivation Index (quintile).
A two-stage sample design is used. Firstly, 1,200 blocks are selected using Probability Proportional to Size (PPS) sampling. All occupied households on Census night 2016 within each block were eligible for selection in the Social Statistics Sample.
Secondly, households within blocks were selected using simple random sampling (SRS) without replacement for inclusion in the survey sample. This ensures each household in the sample frame has an equal probability of selection.
The sample size is based on a simple random sampling approach and before design effects are factored in, this was determined by Eurostat as 5,125 for Ireland. Adjusting this figure for the design effect (to account for how the sampling is actually conducted in practice) means that a higher achieved sample is required – thus the approximately 7,600 responses actually collected by this survey.
Once the second stage of the sampling procedure is complete, a single individual is randomly selected from each household. This individual must be aged 15 years or older. Once the individual is selected, their responses are collected face-to-face (CAPI) via a tablet. Proxies were not allowed for data collection.
It is worth noting, the data for the previous Irish Health Survey 2015 () was collected via paper survey form (PAPI). This paper survey form was completed by the respondent and returned by post.
There were 7,621 respondents to this survey in 2019. The reference period for the survey is 2019. Data collection began in Q2 2019 and, to achieve a sufficient number of responses, data collection finished in Q1 2020 (as agreed with Eurostat).
The GHS grossing procedure aligns the distribution of persons covered in the sample with independently determined population estimates at the level of sex, five-year age group and region. The grossed population aged 15 years or older is 3,925,556 persons.
To provide national population results, the survey results were weighted to represent the entire population (15+). The survey results were weighted to agree with population estimates broken down by age group, sex, ISCED11 and region.
Household weights were calculated for all households in the initial sample. The design weights are computed as the inverse of the selection probability of the unit. The purpose of design weights is to eliminate the bias induced by unequal selection probabilities.
These design weights were then adjusted for non-response. This eliminated the bias introduced by discrepancies caused by non-response, particularly critical when the non-responding households are different from the responding ones in respect to some survey variables as this may create substantial bias in the estimates. Design weights are adjusted for non-response by dividing the design weights of each responding unit in the final/achieved sample by the (weighted) response probability of the corresponding group or strata.
To obtain the final household weights for the results, after the previous steps were carried out, the distribution of households by deprivation, NUTS3 region, sex and age was calibrated to the population of households in Quarter 1 2018 (as derived from the LFS Survey). The CALMAR2-macro, developed by INSEE, was used for this purpose.
Estimates for number of persons where there are less than 30 persons in a cell are too small to be considered reliable. These estimates are presented with an asterisk (*) in the relevant tables.
Where there are 30-49 persons in a cell, estimates are considered to have a wider margin of error and should be treated with caution. These cells are presented with parentheses [ ].
In the case of rates, these limits apply to the denominator used in generating the rate. In the case of annual changes, both the current year and the preceding year are taken into account when deciding whether the estimate should be suppressed or flagged as having a wider margin of error.
The faecal occult blood test is a lab test used to check stool samples for hidden (occult) blood. It can be used to help diagnose certain conditions including, but not limited to, gastric or duodenal ulcers, ulcerative colitis, bowel polyps, and bowel (colorectal) cancer.
The Personal Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8), 8-item depression screener, was selected as the instrument to monitor mental health and it encompasses a subset of the negative mental health dimension – mental health problems. It is an instrument for assessing and monitoring the prevalence and severity of current depressive symptoms and functional impairment and to make tentative depression diagnosis. It is originally derived from the Brief Health Questionnaire, Depression Module (PHQ-9).
Mental health status is calculated using data from question thirteen of the questionnaire. In this question, there are eight items measuring various negative mental health effects experienced in the previous two weeks. Each of these items has four possible answers:
Each of these responses is then given a score; None of the days = 0, Several of the days = 1, More than half of the days = 2, and finally Nearly every day = 3. The respondent’s scores for each of the eight items are then summed, giving a maximum of 24. The levels of depression are identified by their final score, and the categories are as follows:
Body Mass Index (BMI)
Body Mass Index (BMI) is a simple index of weight-for-height that is commonly used to classify underweight, overweight and obesity in adults. It is defined as the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in metres (kg/m2).
In the European Health Interview Survey, four BMI categories are present. These are;
1 Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008
2 European Health Interview Survey (EHIS wave 3)
[3] The General Household Survey (GHS) is a national survey that place takes place three or four times each year. The survey usually has a core of common demographic questions that are always asked (e.g. age, sex, education, etc.) plus one or more specific sets of survey questions that will change each year. You can find more information here:
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