Health Interview Surveys. Towards international harmonisation of methods and instruments
BMJ 1996; 313 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.313.7068.1341 (Published 23 November 1996) Cite this as: BMJ 1996;313:1341
- Ann Bowling
Eds A de Bruin, H S J Picavet WHO Regional Publications, US$35.10, pp161 ISBN 92 890 1322 2
The background for Health Interview Surveys is the World Health Organisation's common health policy for Europe and targets for health. The method of assessing whether these targets have been met is through health surveys, but the use of different measures by different investigators has often prevented the comparison of results between countries. The WHO organised a series of consultations which resulted in internationally agreed methods and instruments for use in health interview surveys. These are set out in this book, with the aim that they become international standards, facilitating the comparability of information.
The book contains a compilation of classical measures of health, health behaviour, and selected domains of health related quality of life. It differs from other compendiums of health status and quality of life measures, however, in its inclusion of health behaviour and also standard batteries of questions for measuring socioeconomic status. The instruments which have been included range from single items measuring perceived health (such as, “'How is your health in general? Very good, good, fair, bad, very bad”) to multiple items measuring temporary and longer term disability (using the disability questionnaire developed by the British Office of Population Censuses and Surveys), mental health, and health behaviour (such as questions to elicit smoking patterns). It also includes the standard questions for measuring socioeconomic characteristics (level of education, wealth, income, occupation, and economic position), and their inclusion will save investigators hours of searching the literature for these.
Heart metastases from a malignant melanoma in the second edition of what must surely be the ultimate medical coffee table book, Atlas of Diagnostic Oncology (Mosby-Wolfe, £129, ISBN 0 7234 2175 7), 600 pages with “an abundance of images”—clinical, pathological, and radiological.
In relation to the health indicators, I welcome the WHO's recommendation of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys' (now Office for National Statistics) scale for measuring disability. This scale was carefully developed, although it has been little used, partly due to the lack of subsequent testing for psychometric properties. Its recommendation by the WHO should now encourage and facilitate this. Health Interview Surveys will prove extremely useful to investigators of health and health services.—ANN BOWLING, professor of health services research, Centre for Health Informatics and Multiprofessional Education, University College London Medical School, London