New Health Survey Launched

A nationwide survey to discover how health Irish people really are, has been launched by the Department of Health and Healthy Ireland.

More than 10,000 households across the country have been selected at random for the survey, which has been designed to provide important information on health of those living in Ireland.

The Healthy Ireland survey will look at a number of factors that influence health, including nutrition, alcohol consumption, smoking, level of physical activity, weight management and wellbeing.

Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, commented: "If we're going to help people to stay healthy, we need to have an idea of how healthy they are. So this new survey will be really useful in making sure that the right policies are in place. It will also tell us what areas we need to focus on in future.

"The Healthy Ireland initiative was set up to improve the nation's physical and mental health. We haven't had a comprehensive survey since 2007, and there have been huge changes since then.

"On the one hand, more people are more aware of the importance of diet, lifestyle, health, wellbeing and mental fitness. But as a nation, we now face even bigger challenges on obesity, stress, diet and many other areas. So there's a big job ahead of us.

"This new survey will give us a really up-to-date picture of the nation's health, and will provide vital data. The results will give us a baseline set of data telling us how healthy or unhealthy Ireland is.

"We can then use future surveys to assess whether or not our policies are working. It's entirely voluntary, so I want to thank in advance any people who agree to take part, as their participation is of enormous value."

The initiative is expected to start within the next few weeks, with results being made available in April/May 2015.

(JP/MH)