Metode og Data nr. 86 - DDA Samfund - Dansk Data Arkiv

The survey is based on extracts from
DIKE’s health database with personal
interviews with a representative sample of
Danes aged 15 or more. The survey population
consists of the national sample
supplemented with representative samples
from the counties of Frederiksborg and Funen.
The data were collected by means of personal
interviews in the period 1986-1987 by the
permanent interviewing staff of the Danish
National Institute of Social Research.
Interviews were carried out in three rounds:
September 1986, February 1987, and May/
June 1987.
In the first interview round the data
material was obtained by means of two
questionnaires: questionnaire 1 to all
respondents, and questionnaire 2 to respondents
in the county of Frederiksborg. In the
second and third interview rounds three
questionnaires were used: questionnaire 1 to
all respondents, questionnaire 2 to respondents
in the county of Frederiksborg, and
questionnaire 3 to respondents in the county
of Funen.
The majority of the questions (but not all
of them) are included in all three interview
rounds (two rounds with special questions
to the respondents in the county of Funen).
In addition to questions about general
background information the questionnaires
included questions about, among others, the
following main themes:
• Health and personal well-being (including
satisfaction with life, stress in daily life).
• Long-term or chronic diseases (allergic
diseases).
• Symptoms or nuisances.
• Activity reduction owing to illness.
• Health behaviour, use of the health service
sector and healers (degree of satisfaction
with general practitioner; alternative treatment).
• Reduction of physical function (use of
technical aids, e.g. glasses, hearing aid or
stick).
• Teeth and dental care.
• External health risks and resources (housing
conditions, contact with/help from
other people, working conditions, industrial
accidents and accidents outside place of
work).
• Health behaviour and health habits (measures
taken in order to maintain/improve
one’s health, spare time activities, sleeping
habits, consumption of beer, wine and
alcohol, smoking habits, dietary habits).
• Expenses in connection with illness (membership
of the health insurance society
„Danmark“).
• Priority ordering of problems and challenges
which the health service sector is
faced with (waiting lists, preventive efforts,
new types of treatment, closing down of
hospitals).
File dimensions: 6697 cases, 709 variables.
DDA-1567 „Dietary Habits and
Health of the Elderly in Roskilde,
1988-1990“
(Merete Osler)
In recent years epidemiologists and other
medical researchers have become increasingly
interested in the effects that diet may have on
health and disease, and it has been acknowledged
that the health of the elderly is
influenced by their living conditions and life
style. During the last 30 years the proportion
of old people (aged 60 or more) of the total
population has increased from 15 to 20 per
cent. This had led to an increased interest on
the part of society in taking a number of
positive actions which will help to extend
the period of good health and function far into
old age. However, sufficient knowledge is
not available as regards the influence of
various factors on the health of the elderly.
Therefore a survey was initiated in 1988-89
with the purpose of examining the health,
living conditions and life style of old people
– with special emphasis on dietary habits.
The main purposes of this survey were:
1. To describe the dietary habits of old people
and to assess whether differences as
regards health and social conditions influence
the dietary habits of old people.
2. To develop an exact method for the measuring
of old people’s dietary habits,
including an evaluation of the validity of
the method.
3. To examine and describe old people’s
health behaviour.
Metode & Data nr. 86 – 2002 side 54