A4.1 Self-reported health
The questions used in the EU-SILC survey to measure health and the prevalence of disability are: (1) “How is your health in general? Is it very good, good, fair, bad, very bad?”; and (2) “For at least the past 6 months, to what extent have you been limited because of a health problem in activities people usually do? Would you say you have been severely limited, limited but not severely, or not limited at all?” People in institutions are not surveyed.
There has been some discussion about the robustness of self-reported health as an indicator. In high-income countries it is associated with life expectancy but in low-income countries this is not the case, and it was suggested that this may be driving some unexpected results in self-reported health in some countries.
Cross-country comparisons of self-reported health are subjective and can be affected by individuals’ social and cultural backgrounds; therefore, this is not the only measure used but it is a useful measure nonetheless, as self-reported health has consistently predicted future health outcomes when used in national population health surveys (4, 5). In the WHO European Region, self-reported health is a useful indicator as it includes a large number of countries in the Region. Surveys of self-reported health consistently find adults (both men and women) with fewer years in education are more likely to self-report poor health than those with higher levels of education. Those with lower incomes do not appear to underreport poor health compared to those with higher incomes (6).
A4.2 Limiting illness/long-standing limitations in daily activities
The aim of this variable is to assess the limitations people have experienced — because of health problems — in carrying out usual activities for at least six months. The question, which appears in the EU-SILC survey, asks:
“For at least the past 6 months, to what extent have you been limited because of a health problem in activities people usually do? Would you say you have been …” severely limited / limited but not severely or / not limited at all?” (7).
A4.3 Life satisfaction
Life satisfaction comprises the subjective dimension of well-being in Health 2020 (8). The percentage of surveyed adults reporting poor life satisfaction was calculated using combined data from three surveys: the EQLS, the ESS and the WVS. These surveys use similar questions to assess life satisfaction. The EQLS survey question is: “All things considered, how satisfied would you say you are with your life these days? Please tell me on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means very dissatisfied and 10 means very satisfied.” For this analysis, a score of less than 6 was taken to represent poor life satisfaction. Cross-national comparisons of self-reported life satisfaction are seen as a valid measure for investigating differences in policy between countries (9).
Annex references
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7. Functional and activity limitations statistics [website]. Luxembourg: Statistical Office of the European Union; 2017 (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Functional_and_activity_
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