National Household Surveys: Collecting Data Where People Live

Abstract

Macfarlane describes the role of national household surveys in describing population health. She explores the development of surveys during the early twentieth century and the struggle within the statistical community to accept that surveys could complement traditional enumeration of populations. She explains the difference between national health interview surveys which describe people’s health based on their responses to questions and national health examination surveys which also assess people’s health using objective bio-clinical measures. She describes the basic sampling principles that govern cross-sectional household surveys and how the organizers’ choice of sampling method depends on logistics and cost as well as on the desired precision of population estimates. Macfarlane raises challenges in undertaking surveys including ethics, data quality, non-response, survey coordination, data linkage and dissemination.