Information by Design
Lifestyle Survey Toolkit

Consulting Young People

Health and Lifestyle Surveys conducted with young people require a range of additional issues to be considered:

• The language to be used in the questionnaire, which needs to be appropriate for young people.
• The method used to collect data, to ensure a good response to the survey
• If possible, the Involvement of young people in the design and data collection
• The best way to obtain comparisons between surveys of young people and the general adult population

Two cases studies of lifestyle surveys with young people are available at the following links:

• Survey of young people in Blyth Valley, Northumberland
• Lifestyles of 14-15 year olds in West Sussex.

Organisations Working With Schools

The Schools Health Education Unit (SHEU) has been involved in the collection of data about young people's health-related behaviour for over 25 years. It does this through surveys in schools using the Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire (HRBQ)

The data from the surveys identify and confirm priorities for health needs assessment, intervention programmes, and health education planning. The questionnaire includes the following:

• Section 1 - (Personal Background): Age, family structure, ethnicity, home background, self-esteem, feelings of control, personal safety, height and weight
• Section 2 - (Drugs): Smoking, alcohol, other drugs
• Section 3 - (Hygiene, medication, dental): Personal and dental hygiene, health problems, frequency of use of medication, relationship with GP, sun protection.
• Section 4 - (Relationships, mental health, HIV): 'Important others', problems and sources of support, HIV knowledge & precautionary intentions.
• Section 5 - (Leisure & money): Leisure activities, income, money spent, National Lottery and Instants, money saved.
• Section 6 - (Nutrition): Lunch & breakfast, frequency and consumption of listed foods.
• Section 7 - (Exercise): Frequency of involvement, feelings about fitness & exercise, cycling, accidents

The SHEU website can be found at http://www.sheu.org.uk/leaflets/fatleaf.htm

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