The survey provides information about the health of people all over Scotland which cannot be obtained from other sources. This includes information about lifestyles as well as about health. This is the only way that the Scottish Government can get feedback from the average family, rather than statistics from people in hospital or from those who visit their GP. It is also the only way they can link information on lifestyles and health.
We talk to different types of people across Scotland which enables us to get an accurate picture of the health of the nation. The Scottish Health Survey is designed to represent people of different ages, sexes, geographic areas and backgrounds across the nation.
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The specific aims of the Scottish Health Survey are :
- to estimate the prevalence of particular health conditions in Scotland
- to estimate the prevalence of certain risk factors associated with these health conditions and to document the pattern of related health behaviours
- to look at differences between regions and between subgroups of the population in the extent of their having these particular health conditions or risk factors, and to make comparisons with other national statistics for Scotland and England
- to monitor trends in the population's health over time
- to make a major contribution to monitoring progress towards health targets
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This survey is a valuable tool in measuring performance towards the Scottish Government's National Performance Framework and in achieving its strategic objective of Helping people to sustain and improve their health, especially in disadvantaged communities, ensuring better, local and faster access to health care.
The Scottish Health Survey is the main data source for two of the Framework's national indicators: