Building a sustainable network of health examination surveys through training and mutual learning

Abstract

Abstract Background Health information is a broad concept and can be obtained from variety of data sources such as administrative and disease specific registers, surveys, longitudinal studies etc. Health surveys comprise two main formats; questionnaire based health interview surveys (HIS) and more comprehensive health examination surveys (HES) which include also objective health measurements and collection of biological samples. At the European level, HISs are coordinated under European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) by Eurostat. For HESs, the European Health Examination Survey (EHES) initiative has been responsible for the coordination and capacity building. Objective: The EHES initiative aims to establish a sustainable European network on nationally representative HESs, which use standardised methods and therefore, provide comparable information between and within countries. Results EHES has prepared standardised protocols for objective measurements and several guidelines for organisation of the survey. To enhance use of these protocols and guidelines, several capacity building activities took place during 2010-2019. These activities include hands-on training events, online training materials, person-to-person consultations, site visits and networking. A survey among national HES organisers was conducted in 2017 to evaluate which of the capacity building activities were perceived as most important. Based on this survey, availability of standardised protocols and guidelines was seen very important as well as hand-on training events and person-to-person consultations. Conclusions National HES data is actively used for health monitoring and identification of public health problems, for development of health and prevention programmes and to support evidence-informed policies. EHES capacity building activities support establishment and development of national HESs across Europe and enhance benchmarking between countries.