The Victorian Population Health Survey is an important component of the population health surveillance capacity of the Department of Human Services. The annual survey series is an ongoing source of high quality information on the health of Victorians. Information in the report is presented on health and lifestyle, including physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, intake of fruit and vegetables, selected health screening, adult obesity, asthma and diabetes prevalence, psychological distress and social networks.
Department of Health & Human Services
The aim of this report is to provide high quality, timely indicators of population health that are intended to have direct application to evidence-based policy development and strategic planning across the department and the wider community. The Victorian Population Health Survey is based on a core set of question modules that are critical to informing decisions about public health priorities. It fills a significant void in the accessible data that are required to ensure public health programs are relevant and responsive to current and emerging health issues.
Background
The Victorian Population Health Survey is an important component of the population health surveillance capacity of the Department of Human Services. The annual survey series is an ongoing source of high quality information on the health of Victorians. Information in the report is presented on health and lifestyle, including physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, intake of fruit and vegetables, selected health screening, adult obesity, asthma and diabetes prevalence, psychological distress and social networks.
Purpose
The aim of this report is to provide high quality, timely indicators of population health that are intended to have direct application to evidence-based policy development and strategic planning across the department and the wider community. The Victorian Population Health Survey is based on a core set of question modules that are critical to informing decisions about public health priorities. It fills a significant void in the accessible data that are required to ensure public health programs are relevant and responsive to current and emerging health issues.
Methods
Computer-assisted telephone interviewing was undertaken between August and December 2003. A representative statewide sample of adults aged 18 years or over was randomly selected from households in each of the nine departmental health regions. Approximately 7500 interviews were completed during the fieldwork period.
The department determined the content of the survey after reviewing the determinants of chronic disease states that are most likely to have an impact on Victorians. Priority has been given to areas in which a public health response is likely to be effective in improving health and, importantly, reducing inequalities in health for all Victorians.
Key results
This report presents information that is compared to selected data items from the 2001 and 2002 surveys. Future survey reports will continue to present time series information, along with changes over time in the health of Victorians and the determinants of that health, such as obesity patterns among adult Victorians.
In the section on health and lifestyle, the report contains information on the prevalence of major risk-taking behaviours across the Victorian population––for example, the prevalence of smoking, nutrition, alcohol consumption and levels of physical activity. Data on self-reported height and weight are now collected as permanent core items. These data will be vital for targeting public health interventions and evaluating outcomes.
Questions on asthma and diabetes provide indicators for the selected national health priority areas, which are the subject of public health programs in Victoria and nationwide. These data complement the department’s Victorian Burden of Disease Study and Victorian Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions Study, and they describe aspects of clinical management and prevention that are amenable to public health interventions.
A particular interest is the module of questions on the social determinants of health. New information presented in the report is based on measures of the extent and diversity of social networks in the Victorian population. Policy makers now have Victorian data that link preventable risk-taking behaviours, their ‘upstream’ determinants (such as levels of social networks) and health status.
The Victorian Population Health Survey 2003 collected a wide range of information relating to the health of the adult Victorian population and the determinants of that health.