Health and health care; personal characteristics, 2014-2021

Table explanation

Description topics

Self-perceived health: good or very good

Percentage of persons who answered ꞌgoodꞌ or ꞌvery goodꞌ to the question: ꞌHow do you assess your general state of health?ꞌ / ꞌHow does your child assess his, her general state of health?ꞌ. Parents or caretakers answer this question on behalf of children under the age of 12 years.

Poor mental health, 12 years or older

Percentage of persons of 12 years or older that scores less than 60 on the Mental Health Inventory (MHI) for adolescents from 12 years of age and grown-ups. The figures relate to the Mental Health Inventory 5 or ꞌMHI-5ꞌ. This is an international standard for a specific measuring of psychic health, consisting of 5 questions. MHI-5 is actually an extract of ꞌShort Format 36ꞌ (SF-36), an elaborate international standard for measuring health. MHI-5 deals with questions related to how one felt during the last 4 weeks. The following questions were asked:
1. Did you feel very nervous?
2. Were you so down in the dump that nothing could cheer you up?
3. Did you feel calm and quiet?
4. Did you feel depressed and down?
5. Were you happy?
Every question has the following 6 answer categories: all the time-most of the time-often-sometimes-rarely-never. The answer categories in positively worded questions of the MHI questionnaire (questions 3 and 5) have been consequently awarded the values 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0. The answer categories in negatively worded questions (questions 1, 2 ad 4) have been awarded the turned-down values. Next, per person the sum scores have been calculated and multiplied by 4, so that the minimum sum score of a person can be 0 (very unhealthy) and the maximum score 100 (perfectly healthy). A score of 60 or more means that a respondent can be qualified psychologically healthy and a score of less than 60 psychologically unhealthy.

Chronic disorders

All respondents are asked: ꞌDo you /Does your child have one or more chronic disorders?ꞌ Chronic means (in anticipation) 6 months or longer. Next, 23 disorders and a remainder category 'other disorders' are presented and persons are asked if they had this disorder during the last 12 months. Persons are asked after 3 of these disorders if they ever suffered from it. Besides (more elaborately) is asked after diabetes. Most questions on specific chronic disorders are being asked to persons of all ages. Questions on disorders that do not occur amongst youngsters are posed to persons of 12 years or older.

1 or more chronic disorders

Percentage of persons who answered ꞌyesꞌ to the question: ꞌDo you / Does your child suffer from one or more chronic illnesses or disorders?ꞌ Chronic is (in anticipation) 6 months or longer.

Functional limitations

Functional limitations
Functional limitations (physical) are observed by means of 3 groups of questions:
a. The OECD indicator for persons in the age category of 12 years or older.
b. The ADL (Activities of Daily Living) indicator for persons in the age category of 55 years or older.
c. Temporary activity limitations and bed-days for persons of all ages.

Persons with a GALI limitation

Percentage of persons that for at least the past 6 months are limited because of a health problem in activities people/children usually do. This internationally used and adjusted indicator for health limitations is called the GALI, which stands for Global Activity Limitation Indicator. This indicator is calculated for all persons 4 years and older.
In 2014, this indicator was calculated by use of 2 questions, in 2015 both questions are combined in 1 question. This had no effect on the outcome.

Medical contacts

Persons are asked if they had contact with their GP, specialist, dentist, dental hygienist, orthodontist, physiotherapist, exercise therapist, psychologist, psychotherapist or psychiatrist, and if he or she is treated by alternative healer. Also, if there were hospital admissions or day care admissions, if people have home care and if they had care abroad. Most questions after medical contacts are asked to persons of all ages. Contacts that do not often occur in the case of children are posed from an older age.

Contact with GP

Contacts with the GP are visits to the GP’s practice, home visits and telephonic consults. Contacts with a substitute GP or his/her practice are taken into account here. Contacts with the medical assistant and the nurse are not included. Questions are being asked after the 12 months preceding the interview. The questions are posed to respondents of all ages.

% persons with at least 1 contact

Percentage of persons in the population who contacted a GP at least once in the 12 months preceding the interview.