News

State of the nation’s health in 2018 shown in new report

The latest figures for the Health Survey for England have been released by NHS Digital, monitoring trends in the nation’s health and featuring new data on gambling, asthma and longstanding conditions.

Date:: 3 December 2019

News type:: Press releases

NHS Digital must be credited as the source of these figures. Regional data is available in this report.

State of the nation’s health in 2018 shown in new report

The latest figures for the Health Survey for England¹ have been released by NHS Digital, monitoring trends in the nation’s health and featuring new data on gambling, asthma and longstanding conditions².

The Health Survey for England, 2018 surveyed just over 10,000 adults and children to bring together data on conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, adult and child weight, smoking, drinking and physical activity.

Other information available includes figures on fruit and vegetable consumption, social care for older adults and e-cigarette use.

The Health Survey for England is commissioned annually by NHS Digital, the survey is carried out by NatCen Social Research in conjunction with University College London, who co-author the report with NHS Digital.

Please note: a correction was made to the gambling figures on 4 December 2019. Please see the publication page for more details.

ENDS

Read the full report

Health Survey for England 2018 [NS]

Notes for editors

The Health Survey for England provides information on adults aged 16 and over, and children aged 0 to 15, living in private households in England. The survey consists of an interview in person, followed by a visit from a nurse, who takes a number of measurements and samples. A total of 8,178 adults (aged 16 and over) and 2,072 children (aged 0 to 15) were interviewed in the 2018 survey. 4,825 adults and 1,103 children had a nurse visit.

The sample is designed to represent the whole population as accurately as possible within practical constraints, such as time and cost. Consequently, statistics based on the survey are estimates, rather than precise figures, and are subject to a margin of error. The sample who take part in the survey is weighted to provide statistics that are representative of the population. For further details see the Methods report.
Self-reported longstanding conditions among adults and children were examined using data from the 2017 and 2018 surveys. Participants were asked, “Do you have any physical or mental health conditions or illnesses lasting or expected to last 12 months or more?”. Those who answered affirmatively were further asked, “What is the matter with you?” and their answers for up to six conditions were recorded verbatim. These were grouped into fourteen categories of the ICD-10, covering infectious and non-communicable diseases of the body and mind. Further details are available in the ‘Longstanding conditions’ topic report.