Press release
Launch of the Healthy Ireland Survey 2021
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
Today, Minister of State with responsibility for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, Frank Feighan TD launches the 7th annual Healthy Ireland Survey.
The Survey will be conducted by Ipsos MRBI, an independent market research and polling company, which has been commissioned by the Department of Health.
From Tuesday 27 October, the Department of Health and Ipsos MRBI will issue letters to randomly selected households across the nation, inviting them to take part in the Healthy Ireland Survey, 2020-2021. The letters ask those selected to call the Survey number and to complete a questionnaire by telephone.
Survey participants are asked about their views and behaviours regarding a wide range of health-related issues, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and nutrition, the ways in which they use different health services and other topics relevant to health and our health services.
The Healthy Ireland Survey is conducted as part of Healthy Ireland, the National Framework for action to improve health and wellbeing of people living in Ireland. Healthy Ireland’s vision is one where everyone can enjoy physical and mental health and wellbeing to their full potential.
Five Waves of the survey have been completed so far and have provided a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the nation’s health. These data are being used to inform current and future policy direction and programme development and implementation. The participation of members of the public is therefore extremely valuable; the collective responses provide a comprehensive evidence base to support existing and future policy development and implementation.
Publications from previous waves of this survey can be found on the Department of Health website, www.gov.ie/HealthyIreland. The results of this Wave of the Survey will be published in 2021.
Minister of State for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, Frank Feighan TD said:
"The Healthy Ireland Survey provides a valuable flow of up-to-date data and information about the health of the nation and I would urge anybody who is invited to take part in the Survey to please do so. The participation of members of the public is particularly vital during this time of rapid change related to the COVID-19 pandemic."
The research data will remain confidential at all times; data collection is conducted in full compliance with the GDPR and the 2018 Data Protection Act; it will not be possible to identify any individual or household from the published aggregate information, research data or anonymised dataset.
ENDS
This is the seventh time the Healthy Ireland Survey will be conducted and adds to the data collected in the previous surveys from 2015 - 2020.
It is envisaged that a representative sample of approximately 7,400 people, aged 15 and older, living in Ireland will be interviewed between October 2020 and June 2021.
The survey gives an up-to-date picture of the health of the nation and reports on many lifestyle behaviours, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, diet, mental health and health services.
The data from Healthy Ireland Surveys are used to underpin policy development and implementation, to monitor, measure and evaluate progress in implementing various elements of the Healthy Ireland Framework, as well as to meet many international reporting obligations, including to the OECD, the EU and the WHO.
Further information about Healthy Ireland at www.gov.ie/HealthyIreland.