An alternative to a
Lifestyle Survey
You may not have the
resources to conduct a full lifestyle survey, or may
want to only include a small number of measures in your
survey. If this is the case, some information is also
available at local level from national surveys.
For example, the 2001
Population Census gives data for a range of variables
relating to the household or the individual. A
very useful resource can be found on the
neighbourhood statistics area of the national
statistics website.
Benchmarking
Your lifestyle survey
will provide you with data at the local level (e.g. Ward
level, or at Local Authority or possibly PCT level).
It is
important
to be able to benchmark the measures you collect in your
local lifestyle survey with regional or national
indicators. This means including questions from
the large national surveys in your lifestyle survey
where possible.
The following example
illustrates the way that national measures can be
compared to those collected at local level. |
EXAMPLE: 6 National
Measures
|
Limiting long term illness |
22.7% |
18.2% |
|
General health perceived as 'Not Good' |
12% |
9.2% |
|
People providing unpaid care |
11% |
10% |
|
5
or more portions of fruit and vegetables |
|
Men = 22%
Women = 25% |
|
%
Who smoke |
|
Men = 27%
Women = 26% |
|
Know many people in neighbourhood |
|
30% |
|
National
Sources used in the above were:
- The 2001 Census
- The Health Survey for England
2002
- Social Trends 2004
Care should be
taken, however, when comparing data collected from
different sources, as they may not be strictly
comparable. |
