EUROPEAN HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY (EHIS)


PRESENTATION

The European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), coordinated by Eurostat, produces standardised health indicators that allow comparisons between European countries to be repeated over time. These indicators are available on the European Commission's website . Individual data are also made available to the community for research purposes only .

EHIS consists of four modules: health status, health care utilisation, determinants of health and general socio-economic variables for persons aged 15 and over living in ordinary (non-institutional) households.

MAIN TOPICS

  • General demographic and socio-economic variables: gender, age, type of household, etc.
  • Perceived health, chronic diseases, limitation of daily activities, morbidity linked to certain diseases, physical and cognitive functional limitations, etc.
  • Hospitalisation, consultations, unmet needs, medication intake, preventive actions, etc.
  • Height and weight, fruit consumption, smoking, alcohol consumption, etc.

BACKGROUND

The first wave of the EHIS survey was conducted between 2006 and 2009. The then 14 participating Member States carried out the survey in different years, in 2008 for France. As of the second wave (2014 in France), the implementation of EHIS was made compulsory under a framework regulation, n°1338/2008 of 16 December 2008 . As of the third wave, scheduled for 2019, the EHIS survey will take place every six years in the 28 now associated countries.

 More information

From 2019 onwards, the EHIS survey will be complementary to the annual European survey on living conditions SILC-SRVC (Enquête européenne annuelle sur les conditions de vie), carried out for France by INSEE, the French National Institute of statistics and economic studies (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques).

In France, the first wave of EHIS was hosted by the Handicap Santé - Ménages (HSM) survey conducted in 2008 by the Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (DREES) and INSEE . The second wave was hosted by the Health, Health Care and Insurance Survey (ESPS), carried out by IRDES and DREES in 2014. The third wave, scheduled for 2019, is in preparation. Following the ESPS suspension - 2014 was the last wave - EHIS is the subject of an ad hoc survey, built in collaboration between DREES and IRDES. In France, it is now the only general health survey representative of the entire population living in ordinary households. In response to a request from the Ministry, the EHIS survey will be carried out among a representative sample in each overseas department and region (Drom) [Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana, Réunion, Mayotte].

For the 2019 wave and the following ones, additional questions will be asked in the French survey, mainly on complementary health coverage, a problem specific to France. The French survey will be matched with health insurance tax and health care consumption data, including in the Drom.

Data from the French version of the EHIS survey will continue, as ESPS did, to:

  • Contribute to reports such as the one on the health status of the population led by the DREES and Santé publique France.
  • Contribute to the work and reflection of various public bodies, including the French General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS, Inspection générale des affaires sociales), the High Council for the Future of Health Insurance (HCAAM, Haut Conseil pour l'avenir de l'assurance maladie) and the Court of Auditors (Cour des comptes).
  • Ensure the monitoring of the protection of the population by complementary health care in a context of reforms aimed at generalizing this coverage to the entire population.
  • Support research on inequalities in health and access to care and on health care pathways through matching survey data with the National Health Insurance consumption data.

In 2019, with the launch of wave 3, EHIS data will also provide regular population health updates for the overseas departments, including Mayotte.

MAKING DATA AVAILABLE

For French teams, data from the EHIS survey will be made available on the Archives des données issues de la statistique publique (ADISP) website [Archives of data from official statistics] .

Data from wave 2 of the EHIS survey are published (in French):