Health and health care; personal characteristics

Table explanation

Description topics

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.

Disorders survey date/last 12 months

Chronic diseases/disorders in the last 12 months. Respondents may currently suffer from the disease/disorder or have suffered from it in the last 12 months.

Myocardial infarction, 12 y or older

Percentage of persons of 12 years or older who answered ꞌyesꞌ to the question: ꞌHave you ever had a myocardial infarction?ꞌ And ꞌyesꞌ to the question: ꞌDid you have this in the last 12 months?'

Chronic disorders, ever had

This concerns 3 chronic disorders/diseases respondents have ever suffered from.

Myocardial infarction, 12 plus

Percentage of persons of 12 years or older who answered ꞌyesꞌ to the question: ꞌHave you ever had a myocardial infarction?'

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. For children up to 12 years old, these questions are answered by the parent/guardian. 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.

Persons receiving home care

Percentage of persons who answered ‘yes’ on the question: ‘Did you/your child receive paid help or care at home due to health problems or (for people of 65 or older) due to old age in the 12 months preceding the interview (or for children younger than 12 months; since birth)?’.

Prior to this question, persons got the following introduction:
The next question is about receiving paid assistance or care at home due to long-term health problems or (for those aged 65 and over) old age. This includes, for example, assistance with personal care (for children under 15) or nursing care (for those aged 15 and over), household help, assistance with personal care, nursing, maternity care, or a meal service such as " such as meals-on-wheels". Paid assistance is assistance paid by yourself or by an agency.

Informal care, 55 years or older

Informal care is the care someone receives from acquaintances due to long-term health problems or (for those aged 65 and over) old age. Think of a partner, parent, child, neighbor, or friend. This care can include housework, bathing and dressing, keeping company, arranging transportation, or managing finances, etcetera. Informal care is unpaid. A volunteer from a volunteer center is not an informal caregiver.

Informal care receiver

Percentage of persons of 55 years or older receiving informal care

Hours of informal care per week

The average number of hours of care received per week by an informal care receiver

SF-12 health measure, 12 plus

The 'Short Format 12' or SF-12 questionnaire is a selection of 12 questions from the SF-36 (Ware et al., 1995 *). The SF-12 is a widely used international standard of a generic health measure. The SF-12 measures eight health aspects, namely physical functioning, role limitations due to physical health problems, physical pain, general health, vitality (energy / fatigue), social functioning, role limitations due to emotional problems and mental health. Based on the 12 questions, two partial scales can be calculated; a summary measure for physical health (norm score physical) and a summary measure for psychological health (norm score psychological).
These norm scores are calculated for people aged 12 or older.
*Ware J.E., Kosinski M., Keller S.D. SF-12: How to score the SF-12 Physical and Mental Health Summary Scales. Boston, MA: The Health Institute, New England Medical Center, Second Edition, 1995.

Separate items

Emotional problem: less carefully

The following question was asked to respondents aged 12 or older:
When you are thinking about your work or other daily activities, have you not done your work or other activities as carefully as you are used to during the past 4 weeks due to an emotional problem (for example, feeling depressed or anxious)?
1.Yes
2. No.

Yes

The percentage of people aged 12 or older who answered 'yes' to the question ‘If you are thinking about your work or other daily activities, did you have an emotional problem (for example, feeling depressed or anxious) in the past 4 weeks not done the work or other activities as carefully as you are used to?'

No

The percentage of people aged 12 or older who answered 'no' to the question 'If you are thinking about your work or other daily activities, did you have an emotional problem (for example, feeling depressed or anxious) in the past 4 weeks not done the work or other activities as carefully as you are used to?'