Consultation on the Health Survey for England

The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) has launched a public consultation to seek feedback from users of the Health Survey for England (HSE) on the proposed changes to the smoking module.

The HSE is a series of annual surveys about the health of people living in England. It is a major study in the ESDS (recently refunded as UKDS) catalogue, sponsored by the Department of Health to provide better and more reliable information about various aspects of people's health and to monitor selected health targets.

The modules and questions within the HSE are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure they are of most benefit to users. As part of this process, the smoking module was reviewed in 2012, with a view to making changes for the HSE 2013.

The consultation will run for 6 weeks and close on Wednesday 3 October 2012.

Following the consultation period, all comments received by the HSCIC will be considered and decisions will be made on the content of the Smoking Module for HSE 2013 onwards.

·         Full details of the consultation

Using multilevel models and MCMC methods and applying them to the Health Survey for England using the new STAT-JR package

Wednesday 11 - Friday 13 July 2012
Humanities Bridgeford Street Building, University of Manchester

This workshop is jointly organised by ESDS Government and e-Stat, a quantitative node for the ESRC Digital Social Research programme which brings together academics working in statistics and computer science.

Prerequisites: a working knowledge of multiple regression and the basics of sample design. Some previous knowledge of multilevel modelling, for example attendance at our workshop in 2010, would be beneficial.

Cost: the workshop fee is £95. Bookings will not be confirmed until payment is received.

The focus of this three day workshop is on the use of new statistical software, STAT-JR for fitting complex statistical models. We will focus on multilevel modelling where the multilevel structure is determined by the sample design, in particular on the way the methods can be applied to the Health Survey for England. This structure will then be used to examine the extent to which variables such as height, weight and BMI are clustered by household and area and whether any of this variability can be accounted for by background variables such as social class and educational qualifications.

The first day will provide a general introduction to the dataset and the STAT-JR software package. On the second day we will give sessions on Bayesian statistics and MCMC methods that the package uses and then describe its application to continuous multilevel models. On the third day we will finish by describing its use on binary response models and give a brief demonstration of an alternative E-book interface to the software. The workshop will be a mixture of lectures and practical sessions using the software on the datasets provided.

To view the programme and book a place please go to http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-07-11/

Health surveys user meeting

Tuesday 10 July 2012
Royal Statistical Society, London

This meeting will provide a forum for the exchange of information and views between users and producers of the UK health surveys. It is aimed primarily at users and potential users of survey microdata. The programme contains a mixture of papers from data producers and researchers and a poster session at lunchtime.

The meeting is free to attend and lunch is provided. To view the programme and book a place please go to  http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-07-10/

NHS Lifestyle Surveys Consultation

The NHS Information Centre (IC) publishes the following Lifestyles survey publications: 

• Health Survey for England – Health, Lifestyles and Social Care
• Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young People in England
• Infant Feeding Survey

The findings are used to provide an insight into the health and behaviour of people in England. The longevity of the surveys also enables changing trends to be studied over time. They can be used to help decision makers improve policies and services and ultimately improve the health of population in this country.

The NHS IC has launched a public consultation on the Lifestyles surveys with the following aims:

• to engage with the users of the surveys to develop a more complete understanding of the use made of this data
• to ensure the surveys are relevant and meaningful to the needs of users
• to seek the views of users on the content and format of the publications

This consultation will run for 12 weeks from Friday 30 December 2011 to Friday 23 March 2012. Please ensure you submit any comments prior to the closing date so they can be considered.

Further details, along with the full consultation document are available at

www.ic.nhs.uk/work-with-us/consultations/lifestyles-surveys-consultation-review

If you would like to know more about the consultation or if you have any queries, please contact the Lifestyles Statistics Section Head: 

Paul Eastwood

Email: paul.eastwood@ic.nhs.uk

Telephone: 0113 254 2509