Proportion of chronic patients

Data presented in this article refer to the period 2001-2008 and are based upon the health module of the Integrated System of Social Surveys (POLS) conducted by Statistics Netherlands. The POLS health module refers to people of all ages in private households. The so-called institutional population is excluded from the survey.

Persons aged 12 years and older are not asked whether they suffer from hypertension, constriction of the blood vessels in stomach or legs, dizziness with falling, involuntary loss of urine, degradation of the joints, stroke, cerebral haemorrhage, cerebral infarction and cancer. As prevalence rates are low, these diseases are assumed not to occur in this age category.