Health Interview Surveys : Towards International Harmonization of Methods and Instruments

With the strategy for health for all and its 38 targets, the WHO Regional Office for Europe has created a common health policy for Europe, and developed internationally agreed indicators for measuring progress towards the targets set.

For some of those indicators, such as quality of life, gathering the information necessary for monitoring and evaluating pogress is somewhat haphazard.

Health interview surveys provide the best means of collecting data on many of these indicators, yet such surveys have enjoyed a long tradition in only a few countries.

It is for this reason that WHO Regional Office and Statistics Netherlands organized a series of consultations resulting in these internationally agreed instruments for health interview surveys.