HISIA: Belgian Health Interview Survey – Interactive Analysis
This web-based application enables you to conduct your own analyses on the HIS data (Health Interview Survey). This application is interactive. Pre-defined procedures accessible through menus make it very user-friendly, as it does not require any preliminary knowledge of the statistical package SAS®. The accordion ‘How to use HISIA’ contains important instructions.
You are free to use the results produced by this application on the sole condition that the source is mentioned (see ‘Acknowledgement’ in the ‘How to use HISIA’ accordion).
Please fill in the registration form to enable us to get to know our users. When registering you can also indicate whether you would like to receive our electronic newsletter informing you of any updates.
At the bottom of this page, you will also find more information on our website ‘Health Expectancies’. Health Expectancies express the number of remaining years spent in a health state at a particular age assuming current rates of mortality and morbidity. On this website, you will find Belgian data on health expectancies based on self-perceived health, activity limitation and chronic morbidity by gender, age and region.
How to use HISIA
HISIA functions as an interface between health survey data on the one hand and the Internet module of the statistical software package SAS® (Stored Process on SAS BI) on the other hand. The user can select the necessary parameters on the interactive web page which will be analysed with the SAS system. The generated results will be displayed as HTML tables.
Procedure
The statistics of the Health Interview Survey (HIS) are classified in 6 main chapters and each of these chapters are subdivided in modules (see the accordion ‘Start your analyses’). Clicking on a module will connect you with the interactive web page.
It is important to select the parameters in the following order:
- Indicator
- Year
- Geographical level
- Background parameter(s): You can select a maximum of 2 parameters. Make a choice for each parameter until ‘— Make your selection —‘ no longer appears.
Data
The results presented in the tables are weighted percentages or means, their 95% confidence intervals (CI) and the total number of respondents (N) is unweighted. The use of weighting factors adjusts for differences between the survey sample and the real population, in terms of the distribution by age, sex, size of the household and province. In this way, the results are representative for the total population, at national, regional and provincial level.
These weighting factors have been adapted after the publication of the final report that you can find on the HIS project page. They were needed to better reflect the distribution of the population at household level. However, this may result in small differences in the results on household level presented in the final report and on HISIA.
Background variables
Education level
The education level is used as a proxy indicator of the socio-economic status of the household and all its members. This indicator is based on the highest educational attainment level reached in the household, between the reference person and his/her partner. This level is then allocated to each member of the household, as they basically share the same socio-economic status.
The 4 education levels are:
- primary or no degree
- secondary inferior
- secondary superior
- superior education.
Income level
The income level is calculated based on the ‘total available income of the household’, for which an equivalent scale is applied (OECD, 1982). This allows comparing incomes of different households taking their size and composition into account. The different members of the household receive a specific weight: 1.0 for the first adult member of the household, 0.5 for each additional adult (18+ years) and 0.3 for each child (< 18 years). The total available income of the household is divided by the sum of the weights of all the members of the household to calculate the equivalent income.
The 5 income levels are:
- < 750 euro
- 750-1000 euro
- 1000-1500 euro
- 500-2500 euro
- > 2500 euro.
Household composition
The household composition is based on the number of household members and the link between the household members and the reference person.
The 5 categories are:
- single (household of only one person)
- one parent with child(ren) (single father or mother with child(ren)), couple without child(ren) (household with 5 partners only)
- couple with child(ren) (2 partners with their child(ren))
- other or unknown household composition (household that cannot be categorized elsewhere).
It is emphasized that the definition of ‘a child’ is ONLY based on the relationship with the reference person and not on the age. In some cases the link of a person with the reference person is unknown or suspected to be wrong. In such a case the household is added to the category ‘other or unknown’.
Urbanisation level
The information concerning the urbanization level of the municipalities is not derived as such from the survey, but is added to the database. This variable is based on the report ‘La Belgique – Diversité territorial’ and is calculated in function of a number of morphological (the population density and the area of habitation) and functional (the commercial function, the educative function and the employment rate) characteristics of the municipalities.
The 4 categories are:
- big cities and dense agglomerations
- suburban/banlieus
- urban municipalities
- rural.
Output
You can export the results of a table either to MS Excel or to MS Word.
Exporting the results of a table to MS Excel
- Select the output table (without the title) in the output window of your browser by pointing your mouse’s cursor to the upper left cell of the table, clicking once and dragging it to the lower right cell of the table.
- Copy this selection by opening your browser’s Edit menu and choosing Copy from this menu, or alternatively, hold down the CTRL key and press C.
- Open MS Excel.
- Paste the selection in MS Excel by choosing: Edit — Paste (CTRL + V).
- The best option in MS Excel is not to choose a format for the table: Format — Autoformat: none - ok.
Exporting the results of a table to MS Word
- Select a table (with or without title) in the output window of your browser by pointing the cursor to the upper left cell of the table, clicking once and dragging the selection down to the lower right cell of the table using your mouse.
- Copy this selection by opening your browser’s Edit menu and choosing Copy from it.
- Open MS Word.
- The best option in MS Word is to set your page to landscape format by opening the File-menu and selecting Page Setup — Paper size: landscape and clicking OK.
- Paste this selection in MS Word by choosing: Edit – Paste.
Ackowledgement
These data can be used freely on the sole condition that the source is mentioned as follows:
Drieskens S, Braekman E, Charafeddine R, Demarest S, Berete F, Gisle L and Van der Heyden J
Health Interview Survey, Belgium, 1997 – 2001 – 2004 – 2008 – 2013 – 2018: Health Interview Survey Interactive Analysis. Brussels: Sciensano.
Sciensano is not responsible for the conclusions drawn based on these data.
Start your analyses
The statistics of the Health Interview Survey (HIS) are classified in 6 main chapters and each of these chapters are subdivided in modules. Clicking on a module will connect you with the interactive web page.
Health and quality of life
Lifestyle
Prevention
Mental health
Health and social services
Health and society
Health expectancy
Health expectancies express the number of remaining years spent in a health state at a particular age assuming current rates of mortality and morbidity. Our website ‘Health Expectancies’ presents the Belgian data on health expectancies based on different health indicators:
- healthy life years: this indicator is based on the Global Activity Limitation Instrument (GALI)
- life expectancy in good/bad self-rated health: this indicator is based on the question ‘How is your health in general?’
- life expectancy without/with chronic morbidity: this indicator is based on the question ‘Do you suffer from (have) any chronic (long-standing) illness or condition (health problem)?’.
For any further information or questions: Contact the HIS-team More info on the Health Interview Survey