Determinants of health

Proportion of individuals reporting to have been diagnosed with high blood pressure (hypertension) which occurred during the past 12 months, derived from European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) questions HS.4/5/6: HS.4: Do you have or have you ever had any of the following diseases or conditions? High blood pressure (hypertension) (yes / no). If yes: HS.5: Was this disease/condition diagnosed by a medical doctor? (yes / no). HS.6: Have you had this disease/condition in the past 12 months? (yes / no). EHIS data will not be age standardized.

Relevant dimensions and subgroups

Country
Calendar year
Sex
Age group (25-64, 65+)
Socio-economic status (educational level. ISCED 3 aggregated groups: 0-2; 3+4; 5+6)

Preferred data type and data source

Preferred data type

Now: HIS ; In future: HES

Preferred data source

Eurostat (EHIS)

Data availability

BE, BG, CZ, DE, EE, EL, ES, FR, IT, CY, LV, HU, MT, AT, PL, RO, SI, SK, CH, NO and TR conducted a first wave of EHIS between 2006 and 2010. It is noted that not in all of these countries a full scale survey was carried out; in some only specific modules were applied, in others the full questionnaire was applied in a small pilot sample. It is expected that all EU Member States will conduct EHIS in the second wave, which is planned for 2014. The results of the first wave are expected to be published in two stages, 11 countries in October 2010, the remaining countries in April 2011. EHIS data are available by sex, 8 age groups (15-24/25-34/35-44/45-54/55-64/65-74/75-84/85+) and ISCED groups.

Data periodicity

EHIS will be conducted once every 5 years. The first wave took place in 2007/2010 (with some derogations in 2006) and the second wave is planned for 2014.

Rationale

Strong indicators of the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Amenable to interventions. Small changes in the average blood pressure values of a population may be of considerable importance to public health.

Remarks

According to current plans, Eurostat will probably not age-standardize EHIS data. For comparability reasons ECHIM would however prefer age-standardized data.
Data on blood pressure derived from HIS are not optimal for obtaining estimates of high blood pressure prevalence, as one can only derive proxies such as this indicator, or ‘prevalence of antihypertensive drug treatment in the population’. Actual blood pressure measurements derived from HES are preferable; these capture both diagnosed and as yet undiagnosed cases, as well as patients receiving treatment and patients receiving no treatment. However, comparable HES data at European level are currently lacking. In 2010 a pilot EHES covering 14 countries has started. When EHES will be fully implemented in a majority of EU Member States, ECHIM will switch to using EHES as preferred data source for the blood pressure indicator.
The above definition and calculation are based on the first version of the EHIS questionnaire, as used in the first EHIS wave (2007/2010). The EHIS questionnaire will be revised, hence adaptations to the EHIS question underlying this indicator may occur in the second wave (planned for 2014).
The legal basis for EHIS is regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work. This is an umbrella regulation. Specific implementing acts will define the details of the statistics Member States have to deliver to Eurostat. An implementing act on EHIS is expected to come into force in 2014.

References

Work to do

Monitor EHIS/Eurostat and EHES developments

European Commission - Public Health: healthindicators.org

Definition

Calculation